"Trapped in a Browser"

In time for the Office 2.0 conference this week in San Francisco, InfoWorld has a feature on Web-based productivity apps.

Summary: "...these applications are hampered by their very foundations: the Web. Without a Web connection, you can’t use these applications. With a spotty Web connection (such as the one at Bryant Park), you’re dead. Locally installed applications are simply more reliable and feature-rich. No big surprise there.

                              

Companies such as Zoho, however, will most likely change that within the next two years. No, they won’t offer everything that Office does on the Web. But they’ll offer enough to make many smaller businesses turn their heads -- especially at an eventual price point of about $10 per user, per month. Give Zoho a rock-solid Web connection -- or install the local server version it’s coming out with soon -- and a “shipping” version, and you’ve got a viable competitor to Office. Maybe even on an enterprise scale."

Comments

[Deepak]

Which brings us to something that has always troubled me. As an early adopter of web-based technologies, it has always troubled me that here we are developing some really neat applications and paradigms, but the fundamental bottleneck for a lot of problems if the web itself. Connectivity is not universal, upload bandwidths are terrible, and so on. Is there anyone sitting down and thinking about the network itself? Wonder if the VCs of the world find that issue worth spending millions on?

[Thomas Otter]

I have the same experience.
I'm all for this stuff but with broadband at home for the last 3 years, I have learnt more about network diagnositics than I want to know. routers, DNS addresses etc. eeek.

I find myself saving comments and posts to word in case I lose them inbetween typing and the submission process working.

I think the vision is compelling, but the infrastructure lags, and I'm not clear who is going to pay for it....

[Anil Kurnool]

Chambers/Cisco said

http://www.thechannelinsider.com/article/Ciscos+Chambers+Virtualization+Inevitable/191157_1.aspx

http://www.itpro.co.uk/wireless/news/95512/cisco-ceo-commits-to-compatibility-with-rivals.html