The line between software that people access over the Internet and software that resides on their PCs will blur over the next several years, as an announcement from Adobe reminds us.
Adobe today introduced AIR, an application that lets people access Web sites even when they aren’t online. Someone who wants to put an item up for bid on eBay, for example, could fill out the form through the AIR software while the PC isn’t connected to the Web. The software would automatically post the information to eBay the next time the computer is connected to the Internet.
Adobe isn’t the only company trying to bridge the gap between online software and traditional PC software: Google, Microsoft and others have similar initiatives. That’s because while online software has a number of advantages – there’s nothing for customers to install, it’s accessible from any computer and it’s usually faster to develop – it also has one big disadvantage: You need to be connected to the Internet to use it. We’re getting closer to ubiquitous Internet connections, but we’re not there yet. There’ll be a need for PC software as long as people want to work on desert islands or don’t want to pay $10 an hour just to access a spreadsheet.