He then goes on to list several useful apps, like Web browsing, calendar and VPN. He is, like the rest of us, waiting for Apple to deliver on the promise to open up the platform and deliver a developer's API. Only then can we consider it a serious business tool.

So what do these last few posts add up to? A trend toward centralized apps, centralized data management, and software as a service that includes even operating systems. I tend to see the trend through security-colored-glasses (e.g. fresh OS downloads means fewer persistently malware laden devices). Robert X. Cringely argues for the same trend but for a different reason:

We're approaching a transition point in computing that most people don't understand. It isn't just the Internet or search or access to movies and music that matter, but all of those presented in a technological context that Just Plain Works. The importance of all our digital stuff along with our fear of losing it will shift us more and more toward central backup and storage. And once you have your life sitting on some company's server, are you going to move it on a whim? No, and that means there will be a LOT of money to be made providing these services. Storage and automated backup and probably some form of netboot with a fresh OS image every time is the future of computing whether we're talking about desktops or notebooks or mobile phones.

Part of the crystal ball gazing is about who will offer these services, the other part is about what kind of devices we'll be running. My guess is MS won't be dominating the former, and small, mobile devices will be dominating the latter.