Philip Brittan's Blog

ASP.NET and Smart Clients

Microsoft makes money from Windows desktops, not from browsers

In response to the the latest installment of my Java vs. .Net series, a number of you responded with a focus on ASP.NET. ASP.NET is Microsoft's way of delivering browser-based DHTML applications.

Yes, ASP.NET is an important part of .NET, but I actually do not think that Microsoft is interested in promoting browser-based DHTML clients very heavily. Strategically, they need to continue to lock in Windows on the desktop, and fat clients are the strongest way to do that.

I believe that Microsoft's main strategic thrust will be around "Smart Clients". Smart Clients are .NET fat clients that rely on Web Services (served up by Windows Servers) and that can be trickeled to the client machine byte-by-byte (by Windows Servers), to make installation much more seamless to the end user. But they are still locally-installed Win32 applications.

Usability will be a primary driver for Microsoft to promote Smart Clients. Usability doesn't just mean the quality of the GUI or the richness of the controls (although those are very important). It also includes the ability to interact with other applications on the desktop (a big problem for browser-based apps) to provide an overall superior user experience (anyone remember the "Are you experienced?" campaign?).

Here is an excerpt from a newsletter that Microsoft sent around to ISVs this morning:

"ISVs: Get Ready to Deliver Smart Client Applications The Smart Client Readiness Program for ISVs gives you the software, tools, and technical resources you need to start building smart client applications. If your customers aren't asking for them yet, they will soon see the need for the next generation of anywhere, anytime data access. Enroll in the program today! http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=215945"

Comments

• ASP.NET *is* a lock-in You said: "Strategically, they need to continue to lock in Windows on the desktop, and fat clients are the strongest way to do that." Actually, since I.E. is now only supported on one platform, ASP.NET apps are also strongly positioned to "lock-in" Windows. I imagine Microsoft's ASP.NET toolkits already generate HTML slightly (or strongly) based towards I.E. and I expect this trend to become more prevalent as the platform expands. I think if there is an increased drive towards rich clients from MS, it's to demonstrate the value that targeting a single platform can provide -- not necessarily with the sole goal of lock-in.

  Posted by: javaben on August 12, 2003 at 03:55 PM

• A Java Smart Client What would a Java Smart Client look like? Java Web Start if there was java.lang.swt? With swt's nativishness and support for OLE Automation? Here's one of the first mentions of the term Smart Client I could find: http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/yoshikawa97using.html A little different, but it uses java applets to introduce this concept.

  Posted by: d_bleyl on August 19, 2003 at 12:52 PM

• Smart Clients, Kinitos and .NET There are already enterprise-focused companies such as Kinitos (www.kinitos.com) taking advantage of Microsoft's .NET Framework (rather than native Win32) capabilities on clients to do precisely what you say - to provide richer and more valuable user experiences, to support seamless installation and _upgrades_ for users, to support offline operation and client-side data management, and to provide a consumption point for web services from a variety of sources. Cheers, Steve

  Posted by: sgwoods on September 12, 2003 at 05:13 PM

• Microsoft clearly wants to sell windows Microsoft's future looking strategy is to move users out of the use of browsers and into centrally managed client applications that can run online and offline. I just attended an MSDN session on smart-clients where they talked about using Windows Forms and also mentioned Kinitos as a vendor that simplifies development of online/offline smart clients using .NET.

  Posted by: todd on September 28, 2003 at 10:06 PM

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