Wilson: Open Web preferable to content apps on iPad

By: Damon Kiesow

June 1, 2010

A VC
Venture capitalist Fred Wilson wrote last week on his blog that he had reversed his skepticism about the iPad. He followed that up with a post on Sunday expressing a strong preference for the open Web over content apps on the device.

Wilson decries the lack of basic browser functions in many magazine and newspaper apps, such as copy and paste, social media tools and multiple browser windows and tabs. He also points to the struggle to create user interfaces for a completely new computing platform:

“I don’t like the various different user interfaces I have to get to know. I am used to the Web browser interface. I know where everything is. If there was one standard magazine app UI and one standard newspaper app UI, I might feel differently. But for now, I can’t be bothered learning a new UI for every piece of content I want to consume.”

> Australian Newspaper iPad App Panned By Critics (Smarthouse)
> IPad to Rescue Media From Penny-pinching Web Surfers? (PCWorld)
> WIRED on iPad: Just like a Paper Tiger… (iA)
> JooJoo creator rips into the iPad, says an app store only sells ‘stripped down versions of actual websites’ (Engadget)

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