Smart Clients vs. Browser Apps

Due to the broad & ubiquitous reach of the Internet Browser, many companies are lured into thinking that developing business applications inside the browser i.e. "ASP Applications" is the way to go.  Today it is well understood that Browser-based applications are not only very expensive to develop and maintain, the "App inside the Browser" approach imposes significant limitations in End-User functionality, flexibility, and ease-of-use. 

So the IT Department gains an important advantage -- a centralized way to deploy and control business applications, but this comes at a significant cost: more expensive to develop and maintain, and far less functionality to End Users.   Smart Clients provide the same centralized control of application deployment and security, and provide End-Users a highly-functional, high performance, easy-to-use application.  The scorecard below shows the relative pluses and minuses of Browser-based applications vs. Smart Client applications.

Feature/Function		Browser- Applications	IT	End Users	Smart Client Applications	IT	End Users
Exploits local PC processing power		Display-only	-	-	Full Power	+	+
Webserver requirements		Powerful / Expensive	-		Simple / Inexpensive	+
Application Development Cost		Expensive & Difficult	-		Cost is 3-5x Less	+
Application Deployment Complexity		Extensive	-		One-Click Hyperlink	+	+
Data Integration		Server-end (EAI): Expensive	-		Client-end (Desktop Office Apps): Inexpensive		+
Application Performance		Dependent on Multiple factors	-	-	Always Fast	+	+
Application Usability		Yahoo! & EBay Look & Feel		-	MS Office Application Look & Feel	+	+
Offline Computing		Usually No or Pay Extra	-	-	Yes		+
Complex Data Manipulation		No (HTML)		-	Yes (SQL)		+
Simple Point-and-click		Yes		+	Yes		+
Internet / Intranet capable		Yes		+	Yes		+
Bandwidth requirements		Med-High	-	-	Low (Minimal)	+	+
Scalability of Applications		Server-dependent	+	+	Excellent	+	+
Based on standards		Yes	+		Yes	+