Finally! An Apple web strategy

Any time I write something critical about Apple the fanboys and girls come out of the woodwork to call me an Apple basher who doesn't have the intelligence to find his way out of a paper sack.

As a 20 year Mac user who has 6 Macs in his house running everything from wikis & web servers to entertainment hubs...I always find it humorous that people are so fanatical about Apple they can't for one second take a step back to be critical and expect more from an already great company.

If you don't ask for anything more from your favorite companies...that's what you'll likely get. Nothing more.

One of my biggest pet peeves with Apple has been their seemingly stubborn inability to play in the web space. From Safari to iWeb to .Mac, the company seems determined to stay behind the wisdom of the crowds and fall hopelessly behind. I've been harsh on them because of this, going as far as to say I'd be leaving .Mac this year if the new OS didn't bring some significant improvements.

Well at first glance from the WWDC keynote, it looks like I might stay after all. Apple may have just created the next internet killer app.

One of the big features that Jobs talked about during his keynote was a tighter integration between .Mac and all the computers in your life. In case you missed it, the next iteration of the OS includes the ability to search for files across every machine you own, regardless of it's location. By incorporating dynamic DNS technology (something I've been using for 7 years), Apple's .Mac service will keep all of your Macs connected and searchable, regardless of their location or firewall. Using .Mac as a secure gateway, you can now access your home machines from the office, and your office machines from the road...look for files...and even move them from location to location.

I've been writing about wanting this since 2000. Previously I've had to hobble together my own solution using DYNDNS.org and port forwarding. I've used VNC, Apple Remote Desktop, and others, but this new Apple solution is the most graceful execution of this I've ever seen.

Just think about this a second...regardless of where you are, you can access every file you have, transfer files from one location to another, etc. It makes other web based storage solutions seem rather silly because you aren't limited by the storage they give you, but only limited by the storage you already have on your own computers. And I guarantee you'll see iPhone included somewhere in this.

But this is only one aspect of the web strategy we're starting to see come out of Apple. With the advent of the iPhone, web clip, their close ties to Google, and the Safari web app development kit, Apple is clearly telling us where they are heading...and where they are heading is into the world of Web 2.0.

I have made many predictions in the past (I'd say I'm about 75% right) and my prediction here is that with the iPhone and the new OS, we're going to see an explosion of web app development pushed forward by Apple and other developers which will be good for both Mac users and Windows Mobile users as well.

Don't be surprised if we see a Windows Mobile version of Safari in the next 6 months.

It seems to me that while it took Apple a very VERY long time to get into this space, they are about to burst into it with the force of a multi-billion dollar giant determined to change the web landscape.

All I can say about this is it's about time.