Is It The Apps Or The Phone That Makes The Platform?Is It The Apps Or The Phone That Makes The Platform?

Apple spends a lot of time emphasizing what you can do with the phone, and most of that is related to the apps, not the platform or any of its built in functions. With over 100,000 apps available, whatever you want to do, "There's an app for that." Are the apps more important than the platform? Microsoft's Ray Ozzie doesn't think so.VentureBeat reported on some of Mr. Ozzie's statements at the Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference on Tuesday, where he claimed that the applications for a given platform won't be what makes it stand out.

I've never been a big fan of the OS. I've never owned a PC or mobile device where I just used the device as it came. It is always about the apps for me. I've messed around with the Mac, but I always go back to Windows because there are certain applications that are only available on the PC - Microsoft Access being one of the biggest for me. Sure, there may be equivalent apps that do most, all or perhaps even more than the app I use on Windows, but if I have no compelling reason to use that app, I surely have no desire to use it just so I can change platforms.

I feel the same way about my mobile device. I got Windows Mobile long before it was called that mainly because it allowed me to run mobile apps that I needed. Applications like Excel, Remote Desktop and web browsers were only on one device nine years ago, so Windows Mobile it was, and still is. yes, those apps have been replicated on other platforms, some better than their WinMo counterparts. Only now are some of the apps still rely on becoming available on the iPhone, though my favorite, PocketBible, is still a ways away from its WinMo counterpart. It's not easy replicating a decade old application that has a ton of features and power.

That makes Mr. Ozzie's statement that mobile apps require very little development a bit odd. I think application developers may take issue with that. Sure, a mobile app is going to be less involved than a desktop app, but then again, so is the revenue potential. If you've developed a rather feature rich app for the iPhone, it isn't a huge leap to put that same app on Windows Mobile. A lot of code is interchangeable between the two, though the user interface is quite different. Try putting that on the Palm Pre though. Not one line of code will work from another platform. The Blackberry OS and Android are both Java based, but the code isn't interchangeable for the most part and even though Java has some roots in C, you can't use a lot of code from WinMo or the iPhone.

My point is, if you are a small time shop with a handful of developers, or perhaps you are the only developer, you cannot possibly support an app across all major phone platforms. You'll focus where you think you'll make the biggest splash. This is why I think apps for the Palm Pre have been slow on the uptake. It is totally new, so any app written for it has to be written from the ground up, whether it is a new app or a version of an existing app for WebOS. Will you take the effort to do that, or will you write for a more established platform?

Yes Mr. Ozzie, the platform is important. PalmOS has had a ton of apps for years and it died a slow and agonizing death due to stagnation. If Windows NT 2000 was the last desktop OS that Microsoft had made, I'd long ago have found a replacement for Access on another platform. It is a bit silly though to think that the app is irrelevant because it will be ported to all platforms. The OS needs to be kept fresh, but the apps, they lead the way.