The ability to perform a wide variety of tasks through a web browser on computers and mobile devices is thanks to “web app” technology. This technology provides a unified user experience across all platforms, regardless of device or operating system, and has the advantage of being easily accessible without the need to install programs.
If you enjoy surfing the web on your computer, chances are you’re having a pretty good time these days. There are so many things you can do with just a web browser. Writing documents, watching videos, listening to music, and playing games directly on a webpage without installing any programs is now commonplace. In addition, online collaboration tools and even virtual reality (VR) content are now easily accessible through a web browser, making surfing the web much broader and deeper than ever before. And it’s all done seamlessly, regardless of the type of computer you’re using. This is all thanks to “web app” technology, so let’s take a look at how web apps are inherently different from traditional software, allowing us to do things that weren’t possible in the past.
First, let’s take a look at the traditional computer environment. Most computer software is written by humans. They use “programming languages” that are relatively easy for humans to understand. However, the computers that run them can only deal with combinations of zeros and ones, so the programs written by humans aren’t executed directly by the computer, but are converted into “machine language” that the machine can understand. This process is becoming increasingly efficient and fast as computer technology improves, but it is still fraught with complexity and the potential for error. This is different from the process of translating Korean into English, for example. This is because human programming languages are much more abstract and complex than machine languages. It’s more like translating human language into the sound of a dog barking. However, this was not very important in the past because most of the computers that the average person handled were limited to PCs, and most PCs had the same way of understanding machine language. Also, even if the computers had the same way of understanding machine language, if the “operating system” was different, people would have to pay attention to it from the beginning of programming, and since the operating system of conventional PCs was uniformly called “Windows,” program developers did not need to write software for various types of computers.
This changed as the performance of mobile phones increased by leaps and bounds, and better communications meant that mobile devices had room to run quality software that required a lot of computation. First, smartphones are more constrained by the size and power consumption of the device than regular PCs, so they have smaller and less complex components. As a result, they often have different ways of understanding machine language than traditional PCs. In addition, the operating systems of smartphones are very different from those of PCs, and software developers are forced to write programs for different types of computers. It’s a bit like how everyone used to speak the same Korean language through voice, but now people communicating through voice, sign language, and Morse code speak different native languages, including Korean, English, and Japanese. This complex environment puts a tremendous burden on developers, which in turn causes a significant increase in software development time and cost.
Web apps are a breakthrough solution to this situation. A web app is a piece of software that runs inside a piece of software called a “web browser”. Web browsers are the software that accesses and displays internet webpages on the screen, and virtually every computer has one. Therefore, the software that runs inside the web browser should run fine on almost any computer. Naturally, the web browser itself has to be customized to fit the specifics of each computer. If the web browser is implemented well enough to be understood by the computer, the programs that run inside it can be unified. Imagine a machine that translates Korean, English, and Japanese into Chinese for people who speak these languages by voice, sign language, or Morse code. As long as the translator is customized for each language and communication method, all communication between the translators is unified in Chinese, so you can communicate with anyone who speaks Chinese. Because of these advantages, web apps are considered a tool for maximizing the efficiency of software development, especially when it comes to providing a consistent user experience across different platforms.
The benefits of web apps are further emphasized by the fact that wireless communications and the power of small computers are experiencing unprecedented leaps in performance, making web browsing on mobile devices perceptibly faster. While the general public may not be familiar with the term web apps, they are already deeply embedded in our daily lives. Many of the things we enjoy on the internet, such as watching videos or playing games directly on a webpage without having to install a separate program, are made possible by web app technology. In particular, web apps have the advantage that the latest security updates or feature additions are automatically made through the web browser, so users can always use the latest software without having to manage it.
Korea has a highly developed wired communication environment, so even televisions can be equipped with web browsers to run web apps. Web apps will run on a variety of electronic devices and change our lives. In the future, web apps are expected to play an even more versatile role in conjunction with home appliances and smart home systems, which will further revolutionize the way we live.
