Cross-Platform Applications - Mashups or Smash Ups?
It’s no wonder the Mac has challenges in enterprise 2.0.
Now… I love Apple, and have for years. I got into technology in 1984 - The Year that Apple Built. I worked for Apple as a business development manager. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the platform.
So I was pretty thrilled to I walk into one of my clients and find a pretty daring environment for a non-agency business: they have both Mac and Windows-based PCs in their 60-person firm.
Most interesting to me, the Windows-based PCs came in late to the party.
But my cross-platform pain is becoming acute. It’s not like I want to slit my wrists yet; but I am sick of even graphics “standards” like JPEG not rendering correctly on my COO’s laptop when she opens PowerPoint documents I’ve created on a Mac.
It seems that in 2007 (only 23 years later) - with all the “cross-platform” products, standards and services we have at our fingertips - the damn Mac and Windows machines still have trouble communicating.
And yes, the Macs have Microsoft Office, some have Intel inside and even Windows software emulators in use; and there are Windows 2007-based PCs that can more accurately communicate (the setup can be laborious, but that’s another story) - inside the building. But the majority of Windows PCs remain on 2003 - as is the majority of the world.
Apple’s problem?
Microsoft has done a piss-poor job of cross-platform integrations of their own products for “the rest of us.” (To coin an Apple phrase from those radical 80’s.)
I know there are plenty of companies who make cross-platform applications work quite successfully today. But from a knowledge worker’s perspective, too few productivity applications have it humming across platforms yet.
The work in creating applications, tools and services that work together seamlessly in a cross-platform environment is critical.
What does it take? Two critical consistencies:
- Consistent architecture - applications make the same kinds of requests to the same resources and get the same respect. (No one will know how well this works until it doesn’t.)
- Consistent user experience - a great software engineer can make applications dance. But if the user experience is poor on any side of the cross-platform equation, knowledge workers will find non-standard workarounds.
Consistency takes patience, resources, coordination and vision. We should reward those companies who embrace a multi-platform with consistency with our attention and our business.
Our employees’ productivity will surely follow.
