I agree with your statement. I don't think native apps will go away, but I do think they will be the minority. I use an Android powered phone and the apps I use 95% of the time require that data be pulled from the cloud for some reason or another. Once web apps are allowed to interact more heavily with mobile device and connectivity speed increases, apps that use cloud data will most likely just shift to being web based.

I read through most of the comments and I think people are getting stuck on arguing this issue based on the present and past. You have to consider the future. Wireless connectivity will improve, browsers will become more capable, and slightly more open hardware (everything but the iphone) will be more popular.

Also, the general population is gravitating towards having their lives'/data exist in the cloud. Yeah it is mostly email right now, but in the near future everyone will use access their documents, pictures and music from the cloud only. There won't be too much of a need for local storage at that point.

Gaming will of course lag everything else getting into the cloud because it is more intensive, but give it time.

So I agree with the comment from Mozilla. The concept will most likely be true given enough time.

Thanks for keeping this discussion going, lysergic.acid.

I agree with you on striking a balance with caution and practicality...risk/reward, and also that politics play a large role. The development of technology has far surpassed our rate of political development, which is very frustrating to watch unfold.

The reason I mentioned military aircraft design was because of the development timeline of a modern military aircraft. You mentioned the F-35, so to use that as an example: Much of the F-35 development came out of the 80's and 90's. Particularly, the short takeoff/vertical landing capabilities and conceptual development began as early as 1983. Further development and merging of programs (politically driven) occurred in the early 90's. Various test aircraft flew in the 90's to support the program and then Lockheed's X-35 flew in 2000. The A-variant should show up around 2013, B around 2012, and C around 2015 (hopefully). That's about a 30 year program right there...by no means quick, even if you don't count the first 10 years of development.

UAV development has been quicker, partly because they don't have pilots so if we lose them there are only financial worries. I think Lockheed lost the Polecat in testing not too long ago.

A side note on CAD: It is awesome, but still truly slow. The complex arguments we give it these days still take months to pump out useful information for complex designs on high-end computers. The problem is that they cannot optimize the designs for us...that day will come, though. Then we will be able to give a CAD program parameters and a desired outcome and it will spit out the best solution.

I understand your argument about the timeline, but I think what must be considered is our current level of engineering tolerance...decreased with rapidly developing technology. Let's say they designed the first Moon mission to have a 99% success chance. Now, with our technological ability test the hell out of our designs, we won't be satisfied unless the success chance is 99.9999%. The more we know the more it slows us down. Current examples include almost every military aircraft designed in the last 25 years. (I think military aircraft are a better example than civilian because of the high workloads they are involved with similar to what a space vehicle would have.) What do you think?

Just write your emails to be sent after you die and leave them in your drafts box. Leave your email access information in your will and have someone you trust hit send for all of them. That would accomplish the same thing and wouldn't cost a dime.

The ad to the right of this article said "Lose weight without dieting." I read it as "...without dying." and had to do a double take. Fitting nonetheless...