It seems that the trend in software development is to create ever larger applications with ever more and intrusive Ads. All this at the expense of speed and efficiency. We are in 2023, but it seems that the app optimization stopped in the 90s.
Many are complaining about this problem, but it doesn’t look like things will change anytime soon. Why?
Nobody cares about speed
When we buy a product we usually want to see the unique features first. A new console that allows you to have a higher resolution, the new smartphone with the 50 megapixel camera, an application that allows you to create a database of your customers.
Speed is not an element that can be marketed, as long as the app runs without reaching unacceptable levels of slowness, software development will focus on adding new features or solving any bugs (which will always exist).
Software developers want to code fast and efficient applications, but the market demands something else.
You can’t sell the software reliability
If we said that nobody cares about speed, what can we say about reliability? Everyone wants an application that always works and it’s consistent. But how do you sell this?
You can’t say “bug-free app” because that would be an untrue statement. There will always be bugs. At most, you can offer a 24/7 assistance service which, however, is like admitting that the software is not 100% reliable.
Software development is getting larger and larger
Applications are getting heavier. Back in the day, programs could be installed on floppy disks (we’re talking about 1.44MB). Now if we want to install an android app we must first of all open the Google Play Service which takes up to at least 100 MB. To download an app we need the equivalent of at least 69 floppy disks now (just to be able to hit the download button).
Of course technologies have changed and it’s not fair to make comparisons to almost 30 years ago, but how many times have you run out of hard drive space on your phone or PC? Apps are getting larger and larger and this could be avoided if software development was also aimed at efficiency. But the market doesn’t want this.
Consumers don’t want to spend money
Another topic is the product sale . We live in an era where everyone wants stuff for free. If it’s not for free, you look for all the possible ways to spend less (Spotify and Netflix are an example).
But of course you have to get something out of it and this is where Ads come into play. They overwhelm apps with ads just to get a little cash while keeping the software for free. All this at the expense of speed.
This could be avoided if people were willing to buy, but they’re not (what was the last app you bought?) so being overweight and slow is the only possibility at the moment for a software.
Can software developers change things?
Can we blame the developers for the current situation? Of course not, but we can inspire them to change things. We need to bring a new philosophy into companies, stop thinking only about content and focus on optimization.
It is a difficult battle, but someone has to fight it. Technology has grown exponentially in recent years, we can even run some video games on pregnancy tests and yet we struggle to load most websites.
The solution seems to be to improve hardware instead of optimizing software development. It would be like saying that if you have a shirt that fits loose you should gain weight instead of buying a smaller size.
What can we expect from the future of software development?
The difference between now and the 90s is that back then developers were forced to code optimized apps because the hardware couldn’t keep up (remember how much memory a floppy disk had?). Now instead we have “too much” hardware and we waste it because we don’t have the need to optimize. And yet we should.
In an era where global warming is in everyone’s eyes and it is preached to recycle and not waste, why shouldn’t it be the same with software development? Maybe we could see some changes after the pandemic with the evident shortage of components, but we don’t expect a change anytime soon.
Perhaps only a push from the bottom will bring something new to the market. Maybe the new developers will give us some surprises?
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