Switched On: Apple wanes in the widget wars
By Ross Rubin 
posted August 12th 2009 8:09PM
posted August 12th 2009 8:09PM
Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
One of the challenges for companies trying to build across the "three screens" of the television, PC and cell phone is adapting their distinctive technologies to those platforms. Apple showed strong early momentum on the Mac with its widget architecture, but is falling behind some rivals in bringing glanceable utility to other platforms.
Introduced with Mac OS X Tiger, Dashboard widgets (or "gadgets" as Google and Microsoft call them) are small, simple applets intended to convey quick bits of information or provide a quick change of settings. Veteran Mac users recognized them as the reincarnation of desk accessories, which provided functions such as an alarm clock and note pad when the Mac could run only one program at a time. Apple aggregates thousands of widgets on a special web page, and Leopard brought a new feature called Web Clips to provide an easy way for consumers to create their own widgets from part of a Web page in addition to the more traditional Dashcode development tool.
Dashboard earned its own button on the Mac keyboard. It drew some criticism due to its modal nature, but its ability to quickly display or hide a screenful of widgets without having to mess with window arrangements made it more convenient than the gadget implementation in Windows Vista and even Windows 7, which has freed gadgets from the Sidebar and now displays them on the desktop -- a throwback to the Active Desktop feature of Windows 95. When Apple launched the iPhone, it suggested that the device featured widgets, but they were there in name only. Some of the functions such as weather and stock viewing mirrored their Dashboard counterparts, but they couldn't be invoked without disrupting the active app as they could on the Mac. This is particularly unfortunate because, like the original Mac with its desk accessories, the iPhone could benefit greatly from having a way to view some simple information when another app is active. An iPhone implementation of Dashboard must be one of the ideas being kicked around the iPhone development team.
As Apple promotes the tens of thousands of applications available for the iPhone, competitors are rushing to circumvent the breadth and depth of the iPhone app library by bubbling information up to the top. If device functions are buried in an app that requires too much work to access immediately, the platform that dies with the most apps is still dead.
A strong example is Android 1.5, which increased widget support, and gained the kind of advantages versus Apple that eventually led to the departure of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple's Board of Directors. Google plays second fiddle on the desktop in the widget wars to Apple and Microsoft, but it now has a strong widget portfolio across the PC and Android devices.
HTC may not call its Sense screens widgets, they embody the notion of bubbling important information to the top -- similar to what HP does in its TouchSmart PC user interface. Nokia is turning to widgets to help differentiate its flagship N97. And far beyond the niche of high-end of smartphone operating systems, Samsung and LG allow you to drag widgets from toolbars on select touchscreen feature phones.
Finally, there's the living room, where Apple's fallen even further behind. As I wrote last week, one reason Apple would have interest in an integrated video tablet would be to have more control over the display than it can with Apple TV, whose outsider status makes it difficult to implement TV widgets effectively. Meanwhile, high-volume TV manufacturers Sony, Samsung, LG and Vizio have adopted the Yahoo! Connected TV widget platform, itself based on the Konfabulator platform that was an early Mac widget architecture.
No company is yet excelling at widgets across the TV, PC, and cell phone, but deploying widgets on non-PC platforms is more of an imperative since consumers are often more actively engaged in other content or communications as they use the device. Ultimately, Apple should embrace widgets as a pillar of its three-screen strategy. In the short-term, though. simply making iPhone widgets live up to their name would deploy the power of these simple programs to ameliorate the complex challenges of smartphone multitasking.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
Introduced with Mac OS X Tiger, Dashboard widgets (or "gadgets" as Google and Microsoft call them) are small, simple applets intended to convey quick bits of information or provide a quick change of settings. Veteran Mac users recognized them as the reincarnation of desk accessories, which provided functions such as an alarm clock and note pad when the Mac could run only one program at a time. Apple aggregates thousands of widgets on a special web page, and Leopard brought a new feature called Web Clips to provide an easy way for consumers to create their own widgets from part of a Web page in addition to the more traditional Dashcode development tool.
Dashboard earned its own button on the Mac keyboard. It drew some criticism due to its modal nature, but its ability to quickly display or hide a screenful of widgets without having to mess with window arrangements made it more convenient than the gadget implementation in Windows Vista and even Windows 7, which has freed gadgets from the Sidebar and now displays them on the desktop -- a throwback to the Active Desktop feature of Windows 95. When Apple launched the iPhone, it suggested that the device featured widgets, but they were there in name only. Some of the functions such as weather and stock viewing mirrored their Dashboard counterparts, but they couldn't be invoked without disrupting the active app as they could on the Mac. This is particularly unfortunate because, like the original Mac with its desk accessories, the iPhone could benefit greatly from having a way to view some simple information when another app is active. An iPhone implementation of Dashboard must be one of the ideas being kicked around the iPhone development team.
As Apple promotes the tens of thousands of applications available for the iPhone, competitors are rushing to circumvent the breadth and depth of the iPhone app library by bubbling information up to the top. If device functions are buried in an app that requires too much work to access immediately, the platform that dies with the most apps is still dead.
A strong example is Android 1.5, which increased widget support, and gained the kind of advantages versus Apple that eventually led to the departure of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple's Board of Directors. Google plays second fiddle on the desktop in the widget wars to Apple and Microsoft, but it now has a strong widget portfolio across the PC and Android devices.
Deploying widgets on non-PC platforms is an imperative since consumers are often more actively engaged in other content or communications as they use the device. |
Finally, there's the living room, where Apple's fallen even further behind. As I wrote last week, one reason Apple would have interest in an integrated video tablet would be to have more control over the display than it can with Apple TV, whose outsider status makes it difficult to implement TV widgets effectively. Meanwhile, high-volume TV manufacturers Sony, Samsung, LG and Vizio have adopted the Yahoo! Connected TV widget platform, itself based on the Konfabulator platform that was an early Mac widget architecture.
No company is yet excelling at widgets across the TV, PC, and cell phone, but deploying widgets on non-PC platforms is more of an imperative since consumers are often more actively engaged in other content or communications as they use the device. Ultimately, Apple should embrace widgets as a pillar of its three-screen strategy. In the short-term, though. simply making iPhone widgets live up to their name would deploy the power of these simple programs to ameliorate the complex challenges of smartphone multitasking.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
I am one of the few that still uses widgets and the dashboard. I only use the calculator, Notes, dictionary, Mamp, and gamertag widgets on a regular basis. Sometimes I'll pull up the unit converter, textdrop, spoofcard, and or the abracadabra widget if I need to use them real quick. I have deleted most of the standard widgets except for the ones I just listed.
I find it nice to be able to open the dashboard to quickly jot some notes down or do a quick translation or conversion. I think they are a bit gimmicky for the most part, but they are nice when you need them.
@Kevin
makes == macs
note to self: sleep more.
If you think that gadgets are useless, you must be using the wrong ones.
I love the Outlook Appointment and Outlook Tasks gadgets on Windows 7. I can see my active tasks right there on my desktop, as well as my upcoming appointments, making it difficult for me to forget them. The gadgets link up with Outlook, which syncs with my phone, making sure I have all my appointments and tasks easily managed on both my mobile device and my computer.
Gadgets are also nice if you need a small program(such as a stopwatch). Instead of scowering the web for a minor program which could potentially be bundled with useless junk and spyware, installing it, then uninstalling it after your done. Just drag over a new gadget, use it, then "close" it(which is essentially just an easy uninstallation).
The trick is to dig through the millions of clocks, weather apps, resource meters, and useless puzzle games to find the ones that can be most useful.
I always turn them off, but I never tried the Outlook ones like you mentioned, so i guess i never gave them a real chance. Only think is I have all that synced to my smartphone and the push email going so at least half the time I am not even using my computer for any of those outlook functions now, so I wouldn't see the widget anyways.
While they aren't a deal-maker for me, being able to press F4 and see the calendar and weather, or use the calculator and unit converter, is a nice feature to have. I like a clean desktop, so not having this stuff ever-present on the side of my screen as my friends' Windows Vista desktops are is very nice.
I did turn Dashboard off completely on my other computer, but it's old and not connected to the Internet - so there's not much reason to have it turned on.
You have to admit, this generation of OS war is a tight one. I never really took sides, taking MS and Apple's side for what they're worth. I think I may have to have them both. This is coming from a guy who had an Apple computer for 5 yrs, but who's job always required Windows. How can you take one side when they're both this exciting? I HAVE to have both.
God, I love technology. :)
- Danny
Using the same brilliant logic you used, I suppose you must be paid by Apple then...
Did anyone actually use Active Desktop?
My uni's library used it quite effectively. They had a menu on it.
I've never know anyone to use it like widgets though. I can't even think of how that would be possible. Or why Active Desktop was referenced in the above article.
My two cats names are Widget and Gadget.
I don't get it. A phone's screen is too small to keep widgets open all the time, so you have to do something to activate them. It's also too small to have more than one widget on screen at a time (except for some VERY basic widgets, like say a clock or simple weather widget). So, if you have to hit a button, or otherwise do some action to bring the widgets up, and then you have to take some action to select which widget you wish to view (say you have 5-6 widgets, you need to switch to the one you want), how is that any different than just pressing the home button on the iPhone, flipping to the page you want and launching the app you want to view? Other than maybe saving you from having to take a couple extra steps to switch back to the app you were using?
Any properly designed iPhone app will bring you back to where you were when you left it, so switching between apps is not much different than activating a gadget mode and selecting the gadget. Any convenience lost is more than made up for by the better user experience than comes from better software performance and battery life IMHO.
Without background processes enabled, pressing the home button on the iPhone will sever any ongoing connections an app may have (such as a chat program, some sort of download or streaming, etc). The app may be coded to be able to resume or re-connect, but the whole point is that the app should not be disconnected in the first place.
The iPhone could have been designed with one additional button to temporarily overlay a widget pane (a-la dashboard). Even a finger gesture (double-finger slide?) could be used without having to alter the hardware.
Yes a phone's display is physically small, but there is no lack of space in the resolution. Many smartphones and even some featurephones allow you to customize the home screen with a small weather icon, a couple stock tickers, an RSS marquee, message indicators, multimedia quick-playback controls, and so on. You do not need to launch separate apps to view all of this information.
On the iPhone, there is a lot of wasted space on the default slide-to-unlock screen where such widgets could live.
In my experience, it is particularly annoying to have to press the home button, slide to the page with the iPod icon and tap it, then jump through the iPod interface; followed by pressing the home button again, sliding to the page of my last used app, re-launching it and resuming or reconnecting -- all just to be able to switch a song playing in the background while I'm busy working in a different app.
Is "modal" the newest buzzword?
I first used modal in the early 80's.
Simply means on until turned off or off until turned on.
Not mentioned in the article but also part of the genre are the Web Slices now implemented in Internet Explorer 8. Although there aren't many right now, I've played around with IE8 (I explore everything new for at least a short while) and they work well for getting a quick glance at information while browsing. Now that the browser is trying to expand to become the desktop and serve the role of at least the top half of an OS (minus the file system and driver portion), these form the basis of a widget family, too.
My duty is done. IE close and back to Firefox 3.6a2 now.
GeekTool > widgets
Oh my goodness. I love Widgets. I use them for musical notation, looking up lyrics, weather, time, plane flights, best ticket prices, dictionaries, translators, Astronomy, financial quotes.
I actually like the fact that the information is "not always" on the desktop. Perhaps the best widget is the calculator. I find myself needing to do a calculation a lot of the time when I'm doing something else. The ability to just press the center button of my mouse and invoke the calculator with one press of the mouse and letting it disappear upon depressing the mouse again is priceless.
I just wished that Apple would have made it possible to create a widget on the desktop and use it there, but with the ability to transfer it as an app on the iphone.
Is it possible to create shortcuts on a Mac? What you've just described with your calculator widget is pretty much what I've done with a keyboard shortcut to calc.exe on Windows since 95. I know that Mac have a calculator program too, so I don't understand why you would find, download, and install another calculator program just to be able to access it with a shortcut when setting up a shortcut takes 30 seconds.
Never found the use for widgets.
...does 't' stand for "tard?"
Based on his post history, I'd say yes.
@ t(ool): I used to have an iBook with Leopard on it you dumb-shit.
The problem I outline is from experience. I never used the widgets. I, however, have a number of gadgets running on my Windows desktop now. What I explained is just simple fact. You have to do something to eventually see the gadgets on OSX, while on Windows, your every day usage of your desktop will eventually lead to you seeing your desktop gadgets because they are always there, without you having to ask to see them.
Seems like a fact to me, and not really a biased comment.
And that doesn't only apply to Microsoft's implementation of gadgets. Many Linux builds do the exact same thing, and I personally believe its the better method of using widgets/gadgets on a desktop. I just use Windows because that is where my experience lies.
Widgets will always be a niche. I love the ones I use on the Mac, and use them regularly.
On the iPhone, the apps are the widgets. So you could say the iPhone is all widgets. Simple, single-purpose applications. There's even a widget-style for apps where you have one main screen and a flip-over "info" or settings screen, like the weather app. So the iPhone has about 50,000 widgets. Wouldn't call that waning.
I don't find Dashboard that convenient at all. Which is why I still use Yahoo Widgets/Konfabulator.
You don't need to press a button to activate those, you can have them in your desktop for constant information like news headlines or doppler weather.
Dashboard has been a poor copy of Konfabulator, and Vista Gadgets have been an even poorer copy of Dashboard.
If they're on your desktop, then you do have to press a button to access them. You have to hide all the open windows that are on top. That's why the Vista Sidebar is beneficial. You truly don't have to press anything to access it, it's always there.
The only widgets I use are iStat Pro, ScreenShot Plus, iCal, Weather, and Calculator. Just the useful stuff for some quick info.
Killed the dashboard over 2 years ago...haven't given it a second thought.
widgets are pretty cool, useful, there are thousands of them, and they're free.
what the F is the point of this article?
I have a widget that translates into a few different languages and i use it all the time for my studies (faster than a webpage, etc)
as someone mentioned above, Apple has turned Dashboard into a place to store clips of your favorite Webpages (now copied in IE8 I believe)
so... how is this dying?
Its an extension of the Internet easily accessible and tucked away when not needed.
Speaking as an owner of multiple macs, the Apple implementation of widgets isn't useful. If they were on the desktop, individually selectable as to backdrop, layerable, and always on top, that'd be awesome. On the hidden screen, they're out of sight and out of mind. I never use them.
The only usable implementation of widgets was Konfabulator. Apple completely missed the boat on this one (and should have bought Konfabulator anyway... they'd already solved the UI problem properly.)
@engadgets
FIX THE COMMENTS SYSTEM ALREADY!
@anyone reading my previous comment and wondering what the heck I'm talking about.
I was replying to a different comment.
Engadget thinks=Hey it is really slow here today, how about we write yet another useless article about Apple again so we can get the small engadget drones to start bashing again.....
Wasn't Konfabulator actually stolen from Apple?
Released by an ex Apple employee, who more or less stole the code from a shelved project.
Then Apple decided to finish it and release it?
I have a few widgets I regularly use – on the desktop. Amnesty can place any Dashboard widget (except for Safari widgets unfortunately) on the desktop. With a single button press or active corner I can hide all windows and see my desktop. I think that's far superior to the ugly Dashboard screen. The desktop is there anyway and normally it's barely ever used. And it can be customized more with wallpapers, additional folders and so on. After all, wasn't that the original purpose of the desktop, to have a central place to start for your daily work? I also think the Dashboard only adds an additional layer of complexity.
Actually it was Stardock Software that created and introduced WIDGETS with their DesktopX Application. Apple hasn't had an original idea since the Apple II. Everything that have done so far has been simply refining and polishing everyone's ideas, Microsoft is no exception to this as well.... thou "jumplists" are a far more original idea that a dock.... also created by Stardock and stolen by Apple.
The sidebar introduced in Vista (a Microsoft original idea) in my opinion made widgets usable. Before, they were buried below all your windows and apps, however with the sidebar, they had a place to live and could be easily seen with a quick glance to the right or left. Unfortunately, Microsoft has remove them in Win 7. So widgets are dead to me once again... i don't use things that are too troublesome to access.
"...Windows 7, which has freed gadgets from the Sidebar and now displays them on the desktop..."
How many times are people going to claim that Vista's Gadgets were glued to the sidebar? That was only the default setting! Granted, a slightly pointless one, but easy to disable none the less.
It's just annoying that the same shallow misinformation is still getting propogated.
More relevant to the conversation, on the mac that I use at work (only because I have to - using it is like having my intelligence drained from my mind) I don't use widgets precisely because they aren't on the desktop - out of sight, out of mind.
Perfect implementation? Widgets resident on the desktop, that can be temporarily pulled on top by a hotkey.
THAT I would use all day, every day.
how can you have an article on widgets without mentioning KDE???
ugh.
I think if Apple figures out how to make iPhone apps into widgets easily then they have a real winner. I mean if I download an iPhone app I can use it on my mac as a widget as well.
I think ideally widgets / gadgets should try to be what the Apple Menu Desk Accessories once were... small utility applications that you may want to open at any moment and have stay on top of the screen for convenience. I was disappointed when Microsoft removed the calculator gadget in the RTM of Vista.
Who uses them anyway?!