The RIA Wars (HTML5 vs Flash vs Silverlight)

While ten years ago the battleground was the middleware, and which platform was the best to build the N tier app whether .NET or J2EE, today the battle has moved to the "thin client". Today the question is more of the type: I want to build a system with a rich content interface, great user experience, supported on as many devices as possible, with a lifespan of several years, which way should I go? HTML5, Adobe's AIR, Microsoft's Silverlight, or HTML+AJAX?

According to Steve Jobs the world is moving to HTML5. To be honest we have to say we like Microsoft's Silverlight platform, and we would love to see extended support on mobile devices for it. It's a platform that will enable programming web and desktop apps with the same object model and flows naturally for developers with a background in .net development. Recent rumors talk about Silverlight being demoed (is that a verb?) on the iPhone by means of using HTML 5 video tag. This could be a sign of things to come, maybe in the future Silverlight to HTML5 will be an IIS feature. Check out this HTML5 sample.

Flash on the other hand is platform that's widely adopted on browsers, but it's getting no love on the iPhone/iPad world. There are some efforts to compile actionscript into Objective-C apps, but seems the reasons are more political than technical, and if the lack of support is confirmed in time, Flash will not stand a chance against HTML 5. But only time will tell.

(this post is the third in a series titled technology watch for 2010)

The Rise of the walking tablets (HP Slate vs iPads)

In January Steve Ballmer showcased a HP Slate running on Windows 7, while some weeks later
Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad. We can say the race is on.

A new niche of multi-touch tablet devices means a new platform to port what there's already out there, and a new platform for innovation. Applications families we envision as suitable to be ported, meaning they could see some sort of benefit from this type of device are:

• Occasionally connected systems. Anyone with a door to door, on site, information retrieval task to do. Call it insurance agent, survey man, or visiting doctor (granted the iPad will miss a camera for this sort of apps).


• Document Management, in particular document browsing apps for every CMS in town.


• Reporting clients. Imagine eye candy interactive charts, olap client style.

Some innovation fronts we think are good candidates are:

• e-Learning. Have little Jim scribble his homework on the new device, copying diagrams and everything from the whiteboard, without having to type it in, and then share his work with his online e-tutor in ... India?
  
• Photo & Video editing/retouching. Zoom in that pic with both hands, then change those pixels, nice. Video editing could work as well if the horse power were enough, or shared with a ad hoc server.
  
• Art apps. Try new electronic music instruments, have a whole synthesizer on the tablet, create, compose, mix and share.
  

The good thing from our perspective is that the two biggest players in this new market so far (HP Slate, Apple iPad) work with technologies we have good expertise in, placing SouthLabs in a good position to take advantage of this opportunities.

(this post is the second in a series titled technology watch for 2010)

Living la vida cocoa (Cocoa based platforms & markets iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad)

The app store already hosts more than 130k applications. It's a thriving environment with 3 billon+ downloads, and now a new member is born in the family called the iPad. This is very good news for us to learn that a platform we've chosen to invest in keeps growing, and creating new opportunities.

New opportunities in this niche we see it coming from two directions, first a trend towards corporate applications. By now every CEO, and marketing manager has caught on to the fact that iPhone means cool, and that if you want to be anybody in the biz world you've got to have presence in the app store, and if possible you have to provide an iPhone access to your service.

The second direction is called iPad as a game changer programmed with Objective-C. The whole iPad hype is worth a post on it's own, whether it will be a success as big as the iPhone is too early to tell, and beyond the point. Apple releasing a tablet means only one thing, this will be the year tablets will become hot & sexy. Which leads to the second point, the rise of the walking tablets.

(this post is the first in a series titled technology watch for 2010)

Our technology watch for 2010

The following is a list of technologies and trends we will be keeping an eye on along the year. While in some cases we are deeply invested in the platform/technology, with others we just try to keep a healthy acquaintance in the spirit of "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer".

Initially this was meant to be an all in one post, but ended up being way to long, so I've decided to split it in several posts, one for each trend/technology (posts will arrive soon, and list items will become links :)

So here it goes the list,

• Cocoa based platforms & markets iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad
  
• Tablets market (HP Slate vs iPad)
  
• RIA Platforms (HTML5 vs Flash vs Silverlight)
  
• Workflow Foundation 4
  
• iPhone alternatives (Smartphone's market)
  
• Augmented Reality
  

Is there any interesting trend you are following not covered here?