> But it's a software problem that you can solve ... with enormous economies of scale.
Can be a problem for software that doesn't have such economies of scale.
Cloud is cheap for very basic usage, but costs can increase noticeably when workload increases.
Regarding UX. Some things work better in the cloud while some tasks are not so well suited for the cloud (e.g. latency sensitive tasks, task that require non trivial amount of data transfer between the user and the could).
I have no idea how many casual users would be affected by one or more of these things, if any. Phone centered user could still use cloud for some things. Maybe there would be enough interest, if polished solution becomes available. It could be you are right, I don't really know.
> But it's a software problem that you can solve ... with enormous economies of scale.
Can be a problem for software that doesn't have such economies of scale.
Cloud is cheap for very basic usage, but costs can increase noticeably when workload increases.
Regarding UX. Some things work better in the cloud while some tasks are not so well suited for the cloud (e.g. latency sensitive tasks, task that require non trivial amount of data transfer between the user and the could).
I have no idea how many casual users would be affected by one or more of these things, if any. Phone centered user could still use cloud for some things. Maybe there would be enough interest, if polished solution becomes available. It could be you are right, I don't really know.