No, Apple will. Here is what I think:

Today, I had to use four DVDs to install the latest version of Adobe Photoshop on my desktop computer at work. My screen read: “Insert disk 1, and please turn off all programs currently running in the background, browsers included”. The DVD ran for a good 15 minutes as I patiently waited for the installer to ask me to install disk 2, followed by disks 3 and 4.

The entire process took a little over an hour, during which I was unable to check my emails, work on any other design software, or even browse Twitter on TweetDeck, a third part Twitter app.

A few months ago, the same software, Adobe Photoshop, was launched on the iTunes App Store for mobile usage. I downloaded, installed, and was working on it on my iPad in under three minutes. Granted, the app is an extremely “lite” version of desktop Photoshop, but that does not ease the frustration. After all, thanks to Apple, it’s a world of apps. All you need to do is develop a need, easily find an “appy” solution for your need, then install the solution within minutes with a tap of a finger.

The way was paved for an appy world during an Apple keynote in June 2007. That day, Steve Jobs wowed the crowd at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) like no one else can. He informed the audience that the iPhone, announced a month prior, would support third-party “web apps,” in which any developer could develop native applications then sell them on the Apple-managed App Store. Developers were free to set any price for these apps, and would receive 70% of the profits.

Although the iPhone introduced impressive hardware and software innovation, it was this App Store that changed the essence of consumer technology by creating a new method of digital content distribution. It went on to not only influence other phone manufacturers, who launched similar stores, but even more conventional gadgets like television sets, as the new Google TV proves. This month, the influence of the App Store has finally reached the personal computer.

From Apple.com, describing their yet-to-be-released operation system, Lion: “We took our best thinking from Mac OS X and brought it to the iPhone. Then we took our best thinking from the iPhone and brought it to iPad. And now were bringing it all back to the Mac.”

One element that definitely falls under the “best thinking” category is the concept of aggregating third-party software, now available on Mac desktops and laptops, and dubbed the “Mac App Store”. Not only is software made more affordable, it’s also easier for consumers to handle. After 24 hours of release, Apple announced that there was a total of more than one million downloads. As is the case with existing apps, the average prices on the Mac App Store range from completely free to $20. Apple is selling its own iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand media apps for $14.99 each. Other developers are releasing apps around this very affordable price point, too. Just click once, and your new app is downloaded, installed, and ready to go.

This is good news for almost all parties involved.

From the consumer side, the App Store provides an amazingly rich and accessible platform. As it is a multitude of companies and individual developers supplying apps, there is an endless variety of potential new applications ranging from the niche to the absurd. It is the essence of the Long Tail, where consumer needs will drive the market as opposed to mass appeal. I am personally very excited to see the end of CDs.

For developers and companies, partaking in the software industry is suddenly as easy as developing a website. The Mac App Store means that they don’t have to worry about securing payment methods, running their own servers, or spending huge amounts of money marketing themselves to ensure that consumers can find their software. Apple serves the files and handles payments. The interface categorizes apps based on need in one central location. The potential for applications will explode again when service providers begin offering cross-platform mobile apps.

The Mac App Store changes everything we know about software and how it is used, distributed, made, and shared. What Apple has done is raise the bar on the entire model of software distribution. At the heart though, it all boils down to one thing: the new Mac App Store represents a new era of integration. Your apps and all the data on them will be in sync, whether on your phone, tablet, or desktop computer. It’s time to embrace that. And probably get a Mac. They’re better machines, anyway.

[Originally published in Venture, January 2011. Written by Roba Al-Assi.]

Here’s a great article on Wired: The Web is Dead

The potential for mobile applications in the Arab world is extremely exciting! Here is what the experts are saying about it:

• How many developers are targetting low-end phones versus smart ones? Show of hands at ArabNet’s Developer Day shows 0 in favor of low-end. Even though the Nokia developer says low-end is where the money is. Stick to low-end, dev guys.

• Gilles Fayad: “Smartphones will have 50% market share by 2015″.
• Tablet sales are growing in the region but there is no data about unit sales.
• Current devices in amongst ArabNet attendees: Mostly Apple and RIM devices, followed by HTC, Nokia, and Intel.
• Google representative promises something is in the works for paid Android Market in MENA, especially since the free app market has been available for 2 weeks.
• Gilles Fayad: “The next thing might be eBook market and don’t underestimate the region’s ability to publish.”
• Rob Jones on mobile application usage and download in the Arab world: “50% is from Nokia, 30% from Apple phones”.
• Rob Jones says that sales are growing for paid mobile applications.
• Amazon sold more ebooks in one year than paperbacks in 15 years.
• Nobody wants to develop for Symbian because it will be history very soon.
• Show of hands from the attendees shows that the majority access Twitter from their mobile phones rather than from the web.
• Google is working on native Arabic support for Android and it’s coming soon, no set date here yet!
• Gilles Fayad: “The No.1 mobile broadband community in the world is Saudi Arabia”.

As a person who does not add much value to Arabic content on the Web, I find the subject of Arabic content on the Web extremely important.

Here are some facts about Arabic content on the Internet from the first day of #ArabNetME:

• In Egypt and Saudi Arabia: 70-80% of internet users search in Arabic, thus it is important to have Arabic content and applications.
• Google encourages developers to create Arabic apps.
• Is it better to develop apps in Arabic? Arabic content is just 1% and it usually not premium content. We need better arabic apps.
• William Kanaan: “Saudi Arabia is the number one YouTube loader in the world”. WOW!

You want more statistics on Arabic content online? Here are some numbers I researched in July for an article:

• There are over 337 million Arabs, 17 percent of which are currently using the internet.
• Only six million have access to broadband.
• Arabic content is even worse off, with one measly percent of all content online in Arabic, although it’s the world’s fifth most-spoken language. Take for example the volume of content generated on Wikipedia: there are under 125,000 articles in Arabic and over 700,000 articles in Polish, a language spoken by only 40 million people.

The culprit? Oh, the list is endless:

• Because of the high cost of bandwidth and equipment to inadequate telecommunication infrastructures, surfing the web is often a slow and expensive experience.
• Due to outdated education systems, digital illiteracy is rampant in the region, though the average rate of adult literacy is a much more problematic issue, standing at only 76 percent.
• The language barrier intimidates millions of people who are not even comfortable with their native language, let alone English, the predominant language of the web and technology.
• That’s not to mention censorship and internet monitoring, which tend to affect the popular use of the web.   

On May 6, 2010, Arabic debuted as the first non-Latin script that supports top-level domains (TLD). The first domain name .misr, the Arabic word for Egypt, is spelled out in Arabic script. You can already visit http://موقع.وزارة-الأتصالات.مصر/, though it might not display correctly if your browser doesn’t have IDN (International Domain Name) support.

Yet, the real question remains: Will Arabic domain names increase internet usage in the Arab world as well as help in improving Arabic content?

I personally doubt it. The sad state of Arabic content online is not an issue of Latin web addresses. It’s an issue of cultural decline that has been plaguing our civilization for a very, very long time.

[Read "Do You Think That the Internet Speaks Arabic?"]

Other relevant articles on AndFarAway: 

It’s Time to Learn How to Surf
It’s Real Time
Start a Blog is NOT a Social Media Strategy
Advertising on the Information Highway
Social is the Word
The iPad Will Change the World
Does the Internet Now Speak Arabic?
Google You: Your Professional Brand Online
Left that Copy
Virtual Goods: A Dollar’s Worth of Pixels
Dial the Web
It’s a Wiki Wiki World
Tis the End of Software as We Know It
Uprising 2.0

For those of you unable to attend ArabNet this year, here are several ways that you can stay updated with what is happening:

1. Watch the ArabNet live stream on the ArabNet website.

2. Follow the #ArabNetME hashtag, as Twitter is often even better than watching a livestream to get a jest of how an event is! :)

3. Read the blogs of the offical ArabNet bloggers.

4. You can also of course follow the latest news and happenings at ArabNet on AndFarAway, as I will be covering the two forum days (Wednesday and Thursday).

For non-geeky readers: Regular posting of unicorn-colored, random-loving, banana-wielding topics will resume on Sunday. Thanks.

Stuff that make me laugh: the horribly stereotypical and totally uninspiring Windows background “Bliss” with “The Office” fax machine anger scene.