Apple reinvented the phone as something like a computer, spawning the app -- something like software, except that it's designed more for a specific device rather than for a class of devices, and can be subject to a single company's approval process (as in the case of Apple apps).
With the iPad –- and presumably, the Android tablets that will mimic it –- Apple has begun to encroach on the market for netbooks, with their flash memory and ultraportable design, using an A4 processor from Samsung rather than the Intel chips it uses in its laptops and desktops.
The impact of all of this on Intel has been just short of hilarious: The company continues to push the netbook in an ongoing marketing campaign as something that runs apps. The Intel AppUp Center, currently in beta and announced at CES earlier this year, encourages developers to "be a part of the next big thing" by developing apps that run on an iPad-style, walled garden of a software platform, which itself runs on top of a Windows or Linux netbook operating system powered by Intel's Atom processor.
Meanwhile, Google's Chrome OS netbooks will dispense with the operating system completely when they become available in late fall in favor of apps from the Chrome Web App store.
Of course, Linux and Windows netbooks like the ones Intel is targeting with the AppUp Store can run whatever software you want them to run -- just like laptops and desktops. Their rebranding as things that run apps is, if anything, a step backwards.
What's next: boats that float as dubiously as rafts? Cars inspired by the motorcycle, teetering down the road on two wheels?
That said, there is a key difference between apps and software, and consumers seem to prefer the former in many cases. App-based devices are designed for consumption -- of text, music, video, games and other forms of output. Netbooks and their laptop and desktop siblings, conversely, are designed for input. It's not just the keyboard and mouse that make them so, but faster processors and the way their operating systems run highly specialized, powerful software from anywhere -- rather than smaller, simpler apps from in a single store.
This leakage of the app mentality onto netbooks is funny, because it doesn't make practical sense to add another layer between the operating system and the user, just so that people feel like they're using a touchscreen-free iPad with a keyboard. But consumers' preference for the fun and simplicity of apps could have serious implications for the future of computing in general.
If the fat part of the market (consumers) starts buying output-oriented devices rather than the general purpose, input-friendly computers they buy now, which are vastly overpowered in most cases, the thin part of the market (creators) could see the price of creation-oriented devices rise, and software created for those devices grow scarce. Manufacturers will aim for the fat part of the market, and developers will find it more profitable to spend their time developing multiple apps with the same simple functionality for the larger audiences on various app platforms.
A migration from software to apps is really about a shift from input to output. Editing video with YouTube's web app on a tablet and adding approved music from Google's AudioSwap library is not the same as running Final Cut on a powerful desktop machine and adding whatever elements you want, for example.
Intel's attempt to launch an app ecosystem for netbooks is, in a sense, a marketing ploy designed to make netbooks stand up against iPads and, eventually, Android tablets. And as the company faces the commoditization of laptops and desktops, it desperately needs to be a part of the burgeoning market for these lightweight machines.
Though they lack touchscreens, netbooks can now install simple, single-purpose apps from one convenient storefront, just like smartphones and tablets. And just like that, the computer becomes slightly more like a television set (speaking of which, those will soon run apps too), and slightly less like, well, a computer.
Maybe people really want their netbooks to act like iPads. This first spread of the app ecosystem into the traditional operating system indicates that those who worry about apps replacing software might be onto something.
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