Cloud-centric computing systems don’t make sense to me. Why make a device unreliable when it doesn’t have to be?
Connectivity Still an Issue
A cloud-centric approach is destined to deliver a subpar user experience because the access to the cloud isn’t ubiquitous, and it won’t be for a long time. Ubiquitous is a very high bar. For example, although I’m in a 3G coverage area, there are many (Wifi-free) buildings I could enter where the signal doesn’t reach my device.
If my device was useless whenever it couldn’t connect to the cloud, I would be very frustrated with it.
Storage Continues to Beat Bandwidth
Disk space is getting cheaper faster than bandwidth is getting cheaper, and it has been for many years. Flash-based storage, while not dropping in price like spinning disk drives, is also getting cheaper faster than bandwidth.
Even worse, bandwidth has been actually getting more expensive in many scenarios because of data caps. If your usage pushes you over your monthly data cap, it often gets very expensive very quickly.
Store Locally, Transfer Globally
The sensible thing to do given these trends is to store things on the device whenever possible. Things stored on the device are available no matter what, with no latency. This might not make sense today for data-intensive applications like video where the device’s storage is currently too small, but storage prices will continue to fall rapidly.
The internet is great as a transfer mechanism but too expensive, slow and unreliable to be the primary data source for many applications.
