Are "simple" apps irresponsible?

"Simple is best" is a siren song that is sung by some SaaS application software vendors.  They say that simple applications are easy to learn and use and that complicated things just get in the way.

Perhaps simple is best for some computer users.  But for others, and I would suggest most others, simple isn't best.  In fact, simple SaaS apps can be frustrating when they don't do what you need them to do and expensive when you have to replace them.  Those who continue to preach "simple is best" as SaaS panacea are, at best, short-sighted and, at worst, irresponsible to both their customers and the wider computing community.

The work that most people use a computer to do isn't simple. Appropriate software applications must support all of the functions that are needed.  Otherwise the user needs to resort to other methods which will naturally be slower and more cumbersome.

SaaS applications are no different than any other software in this regard.  While they can offer some compelling additional benefits (ie. lower TCO, collaborative features, availability) if they don't provide the minimum functionality required then they shouldn't be used.

To give it some historic perspective, any new computing platform has to develop appropriate infrastructure and development tools to support increasingly better-featured apps.  Remember DOS in the early 80s? Slow and small or non-existent hard drives and an absence of development tools meant that early products were simple and less functional.  The same was true of early Windows applications which were hampered by insufficient RAM, slow CPUs and primitive development tools.

Development of browser-based products has followed the same path: early infrastructure, development tools and browsers weren't sufficiently capable of creating or running sophisticated applications.  Developers therefore created simpler, less functional applications and, perhaps, developed a "simple is best" mantra in order to promote and defend their products.  That time has now passed.

There are now no impediments to creating and deploying full-featured, fully functional browser-based applications.  Customers should approach these products as they would any other:  by defining their own needs carefully and then searching for applications that meet all of their needs.  And for many customers, this will mean resisting the siren song of "simple is best".