November 4, 2016
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Evolution of the Mobile Web As Told Through Automobiles

Max Lynch

CEO

evolution-mobile-web

In case you missed it, our very own Adam Bradley, a self-proclaimed “car buff,” gave a wonderful talk this month at ngEurope about how the evolution of the web, in particular on mobile, has parallels to the history of the car industry. In fact, many of the same things that influence why people pick certain technologies and stick with them over generations are the same whether we’re talking about cars, or software tools, or even light bulbs and screws.

Adam is a veteran, both of the military and of the mobile web, so he’s seen everything from our earliest attempts at making the browser dynamic, to 2016 where the mobile browser environment is increasingly capable of native-quality experiences and is helping people make a lot of money through Serious Business.

Through it all, it’s impressed on him the futility of trying to rely on proprietary technology. Over the years, every major proprietary improvement to web technology, whether it’s Flash or Silverlight or ActiveX, has eventually been proven obsolete and those that built kingdoms on closed systems had consistently faced days of reckoning that were costly and disruptive to their business.

close-systems-always-fail

Adam’s tongue-in-cheek framework for deciding whether a technology is going to be short lived is whether the company puts their brand name next to it (Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, etc.). I found that pretty apt.

When we think about Ionic, it’s important to realize that Ionic is built 100% on and is itself open web technology. An Ionic app will run on every modern browser today and probably for the next several decades. That’s an unprecedented level of stability and consistency in technology that businesses can truly rely on. Every hook we make into a native iOS and Android SDK diminishes the longevity of the stability of our code, though it’s often a necessary evil of using new native features like TouchID and voice input that haven’t quite made their way to the web stack.

always-bet-on-the-web

Ionic is proud of being web-first in a world of native-first technologies. We believe having standards for things like weights and measurements, nuts and bolts, lightbulbs, electricity, and software technology, make our world not only safer but more collaborative because we can rely on everyone in the world being able to work together. It also helps us sleep better at night, and people know that I need to get my sleep.

With that, here’s Adam’s talk, I hope you enjoy it!


Max Lynch

CEO