Application Software Vendors, Grow up. We have!

Application Software Vendors, Grow up.

We have!

What is it with application software makers, and why are they still living in the last century?

So, we know the future is already here. Why is it that we’re still using last century application software?  I’m talking here about office productivity, enterprise resource planning, and the myriad other applications we use on a daily basis at the office and home.  The applications we use to produce, manage, and distribute information in 2015 have not changed a whole lot from the computing paradigm of 1995..!?

Take any of the business applications we use to produce documents, media, reports, presentations, etc.  Whether using the microsoft office suite, adobe creative cloud, or even more recent online equivalents under the saas model, we still have to deal with a steep learning curve which forces the user into the application paradigm rather than accommodating the user’s way of working.  One has to navigate the illogical maze of menus and sub-menus, clicks; left, right and double, toolbars and swatches, all to accomplish a silly task such as changing the background of, or resizing an image.

I mean, have you ever tried the simple task of changing the background of an image in adobe photoshop or any other similar (and highly priced) application?!!  How many times have you had to repeat the same steps, requiring many clicks and scrolls and picking from options lists, to apply simple formatting to text in ms word..?!!  Don’t even get me started on illustrator or excel.

Think of all the basic functions we perform on our computers and the interface through which we execute them.  Nothing has really changed.  We have more “windows” today to peer into the digital, but it’s still “point-and-click” in one form or another.

Get REAL!

It wouldn’t be so frustrating if one didn’t know better.  As having discussed in a previous post, what is possible today is a whole lot better than what application software vendors are dumping on us (at exuberant prices), in the name of productivity and creativity.  It’s really hard to be productive, much less creative, when one has to exercise hours of training and practice to be able to use the basic functions of an adobe photoshop or microsoft excel type of application. With AI having reached advances where “an A.I. doesn’t just perceive but imagine and reason, too”, as Mangalindan put it, today’s commercial software seems medieval.

What we want today is software that listens to us and performs what it’s told.  There is absolutely no reason I shouldn’t be able to tell photoshop to “swap the cloudy skies background with a clear skies one,” and Kabooooooom, there it is!  Of course, it can do much better than that. It can offer me different views and suggest the most appropriate one for the “foreground”.  It can adjust the shadows and hues to blend seamlessly with rest of the image.  And that’s only the beginning.  Algorithms exist today that enable the application to anticipate and auto-perform my wants.  It can build media files and package them spontaneously based on my learned inclination.  What is possible today is beyond what this human mind can even conceive of, and certainly much more advanced than what we’re being offered as productivity software.

So, what can software vendors do?  For one, the can start to truly innovate and show some respect for the minds of the consumers whose pockets they’re trying to dip into.  A little less emphasis on “marketing” and more on meeting actual customer needs maybe a good place to start.

These “tech giants” are fully aware of the possibilities and of the advanced algorithms available to create “next-generation” application software.  From interface design to AI functionality, a departure from old-days programming & coding paradigms is not only possible, it is mandatory.  If adobe expects me to renew my $649 annual subscription to its creative cloud, it’d better start innovating to make the 2015 version “come of age.”  Give me real value or get off my desktop.

Are we as consumers helpless in the face of this commercially driven, market share grab we find ourselves subject to?  Well, not totally.  We can cease to use these pricey application suites until their providers start “developing” instead of “coding.”  With the availability of free open source alternatives- which are almost identical in form and function to these commercial offerings- we have nothing to lose.  We can save money, vote for future innovation, and save plenty of storage space in the meanwhile.

So, yes. We have grown up and expect the same of any provider who wants to get our money.  Application software vendors are betraying not only the end user, but their own industry, by refusing to grow up!