Killer application
The term killer app (English: killer application ) refers to a specific application software ( application ) that an already existing technology helps with the breakthrough that has previously met with little interest because you have not seen any use for them. In this sense, the term ( buzz word ) has been used since around 1993. In a broader sense, the term is also used as a catchphrase or metaphor. He can then describe products, but also abstract concepts that led to a breakthrough.
The name is derived from the fact that similar and often older competing technologies are quickly displaced, i.e. killed (English: to kill ).
In information processing
In computer science, it is the application program that arouses enough interest among the general public to buy an underlying technology. Without this technology, the application program cannot be used. This is why one speaks of “ software sells hardware ”.
The essence of a killer application such as email can be described by properties such as its synergy potential . Only a critical number of users make this technology useful.
Examples
- Home banking for the distribution of online services.
- The PC's killer application was the spreadsheet .
- The Arpanet's killer application was email .
- The Internet's killer application was the World Wide Web .
- The killer application on the Macintosh was desktop publishing .
- The killer app of the Game Boys was Tetris
- The Xbox's killer app was Halo .
In addition, technologies such as electrical power can also be referred to as a killer application for electrical light , or of the combustion engine for the automobile . Wikipedia could serve as an example of a killer application for wikis .
Outside of information processing
The term killer application is used inconsistently outside of IT. It stands here as a metaphor for important ideas or concepts.
The British historian Niall Ferguson sees the dominance of the western world as being based on the use of six killer apps . These are less about technological developments than about legal and cultural framework conditions that came into effect in the West at crucial times. The six killer apps, according to Ferguson, are competition , science , democracy , medicine , consumption, and Protestant work ethic . Elsewhere, the historian speaks of democracy not being seen as a killer application, but rather the concepts of the rule of law and property rights.
Individual evidence
- ^ Sjurts, Insa, ed. Gabler Lexicon Media Economy. Springer-Verlag, 2013. p. 312.
- ↑ Hansen, Wolf-Rüdiger, and Frank D. Peschanel. Gabler Lexicon Innovative Information Processing: Integration and Application in Business and Administration. Springer-Verlag, 2013. p. 140.
- ↑ Koschnick, Wolfgang J. Media and Journalists Yearbook. Walter de Gruyter, 1996.
- ↑ Lutz, Andreas. Marketing for money market funds by mutual funds: an industrial economics study. Springer-Verlag, 2013. p. 207.
- ↑ 30 years ago: With Visicalc a new era dawns (message on Heise online )
- ↑ Mayer, Florian Leander. Success factors of social media: How do wikis "work" ?: A comparative analysis of collaborative communication systems on the Internet, in organizations and in groups. Vol. 4. LIT Verlag Münster, 2013. P. 3.
- ↑ Niall Ferguson: The West and the Rest of the World. The story of the competition between cultures. Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 3549074115
- ↑ "The euro survives, the EU does not" - Niall Ferguson in the Handelsblatt, article by Torsten Riecke, November 8, 2011.
literature
- Downes, Larry, and Chunka Mui. In search of the killer application: conquering new markets with digital strategies. Campus-Verlag, 1999.