Hot or Not: The Web as an SDK

Remember back when the iPhone first came out and Steve Jobs proudly announced that the SDK for it was “the web”? Apparently history really does repeat itself because now Google is trying the exact same thing with Chrome OS:

The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. The decision was extremely unpopular with the iPhone but no doubt it will be extremely popular with Google because it matches people’s expectations. Interestingly, the most common reason people give for the iPhone’s success is now the App Store. I guess we’ll get a chance to see if they’re right or not. I don’t see the web as the only API working even though it would work very well for a large percentage of computer usage. Twitter would be a particularly good example of why – you can use Twitter via the web and certainly some people do, but the standalone clients are by far and away the best way to use it. The same generally applies to instant messaging as well.