iPhone Apps, Dashboard Widgets and the Mythical Apple Tablet

Last week, I wrote this regarding what OS should run the tablet:

Maybe the strongest option would be a hybrid between the Mac and iPhone OS. I imagine this as a device running Mac OS X, but also having the ability to run apps purchased from the App Store in some type of environment like OS X’s Dashboard. That way, the tablet is both the most portable Mac and the largest iPod touch on the market.

While I still think this is the perfect solution for the mythical product, I think it would do wonders to OS X’s Dashboard feature.

Released with 10.4, Dashboard was touted as a quick-and-easy way to check specific information. Dashboard was a huge controversy when first released. At the time, a product named Konfabulator was already on the market, and did pretty much the exact same thing Apple’s Dashboard product did. Many cried foul, and a few months later, Yahoo snapped up the small company.

Early examples of widgets included Weather, Flight Tracker and Stickies. While it wasn’t as quick as Apple has promised (the eye candy was too much for most Macs shipping at the time), it was the easiest way to check stocks and other information without having to launch a browser.

But I — like most users — used Dashboard heavily at first and then just forgot about it. Sure, I use it for things like iStat and AccuWeather, but I bet it’s been a long time since I added any new widgets to the 3 or 4 I keep open.

It seems to me that Dashboard may be dying.

Development of new Dashboard widgets has slowed considerably over the years. Apple keeps a repository of available downloads, and it seems to be about the same size it’s been for some time. I think the App Store is the major reason why.* Why develop something for free for the Mac when you can both charge for it and have it available to a much larger install base?

Of course, Apple has had programs that ran their course and have gone away. The big one that comes to mind is Sherlock. (Which in many ways, was replaced with Dashboard.)

One way to keep Dashboard relevant is to re-create it as an environment for iPhone apps to run on the tablet.

The major — and probably only — downside to this is that it could negatively impact the development of Mac apps. If Apple does indeed use iPhone apps on any device other than an iPhone or iPod touch, they’ll have to figure out a way to protect Mac developers and their work.

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*Making this ironic.