Examples of successful migrations of desktop apps to the Web?
3 comments
Yes, Google's proprietary Web applications are a great example of desktop applications that where ported to the Web:
Gmail (proprietary) = Thunderbird (open-source) Google Docs (proprietary) = OpenOffice (open-source) Google Reader (proprietary) = RSSOwl (open-source)
They forgot to add the "download source" link at the bottom of the page.
Gmail (proprietary) = Thunderbird (open-source) Google Docs (proprietary) = OpenOffice (open-source) Google Reader (proprietary) = RSSOwl (open-source)
They forgot to add the "download source" link at the bottom of the page.
A lot of enterprise software fits in this category. My last employer was one of them, but its name or product wouldn't mean anything to the average reader of this site, since it's a niche financial product.
TurboTax
However, I'm a bit stuck for examples of applications that have successfully made such a transition, and was hoping to get some insights from others here. FedEx moved from PC-based tracking software to the Web, and seems to have done well as a result. Banks have also abandoned PC-based software in favor of the Web. Adobe has ported Photoshop to the Web, but I'm not sure if it's really comparable, or if they're making real money from it. I'm also unsure of how many people use Intuit's Web-based software, rather than their desktop apps.
So, can you think of any good examples of companies that successfully made this transition? Any and all insights are welcome.