The future of software, as told by me

The days of killer apps coming from corporations is dead. The days of new software coming from corporations is dead. The role of corporations, in the software industry, is maintence. They are regulated to the role of adopting technologies developed by other people, and packaging it for the masses. They now live at the whim of hackers, the real developers of the world.

The killer app for mobile computing will not be a new messaging system or a fancy browser or even a new GPS tool. It will be an open platform both at the software and hardware level. Once, the mobile industry hands over the reigns to the masses and lets them do what they want, then mobile computing will work.

On a software level, the OS must be open, with a free, easy to use set of libraries and programing tools. It needs to be a platform that any decent coder can work on and with. If new languages must be developed, then they must be similiar to existing languages. Preferably, they will allow the use of current, populair languages.

On the hardware level, the devices must be open to moding. Any hardware hacker must be able to crack the case open and switch out memory and storage, over clock chipsets, and tinker to their heart's desire.

In short, the hackers of the world must be courted with great zeal. These new devices must be marketed directly to them, selling them on the ability to modify hardware and write applications. By doing this industry will loose control, but will get a window into the world of what people WANT from these devices.

The days of automating or porting tasks to computers is done. We can now do all we want to do. Now, we must be allowed to tweek, to combine at will. We are no longer interested in what you think we want. We now want what we want. We know we can get it, because we get it from out desktops and laptops. We have learned to expect freedom, and we will accept nothing less. Any company that does not learn this lesson, will die.

Posted by Matt at May 12, 2004 08:51 PM