Software as Hardware

Why don't software companies treat their products like hardware companies?

Imagine:

New software products and upgrades released as new interface or application collections, with features curated for specific market segments, cultural moments, or the next generation. Free of tech and design debt.

Every product release is an opportunity to rethink the experience and features from first principles, yet software is rarely re-built or re-engineered.

Our tendency is to settle on a foundation and layer-in complexity with each incremental product evolution. We add new features on top of existing ones, without rethinking the interface or experience. Over time, our interfaces become overloaded and our experiences discontinuous. We inherit outdated design, features, and technical constraints.

Until now, re-thinking software has been too resource intensive, and the market has been slower to adapt to change. Faster development and dynamic software experiences enabled by AI and multi-modal computing is changing that, including the market's response to change.

Our products and market perceptions are both becoming more adaptable, in real-time.

It presents an opportunity to introduce a new way to develop and market software.

Similar to the progression of iPod models, or new fashion collections. Features are deliberately curated rather than accumulated, with each product cycle presenting net new form factors, colours, materials, shapes, interaction paradigms, capabilities, assortments, etc - while keeping the integrity of its brand and reason for being.

I will be watching for the first company that executes on this vision.