Software vendors appear to be shifting away from providing installation disks for their products. This post discusses this trend and looks at some of the implications to the Caribbean region.

The new operating system for Mac computers, the OS X Lion, was released in late July. However, prior to its release Apple announced that this programme would be available for download from the Mac App Store only. Hence no installation CDs of the programme would be produced, and neither would it be available for purchase at other retail stores.

This approach to software distribution is a growing trend. The manufacture of installation CDs is on the decline, instead software applications must be purchased and downloaded online. Further, and as discussed in Is it really in the Clouds? How 5 stated trends in Cloud Computing really stack up, the situation is being encouraged by a number of factors, including:

  • the growing emphasis towards cloud computing, which require reliable and broadband speeds for effective operation
  • the availability of low-priced and high speed broadband in developed countries
  • the tendency for economically priced PCs and laptops not have optical drives installed
  • the nearly ubiquitous use of highly portable devices, such as smartphones and tablets, which do not have optical drive and have very limited internal storage.

The Caribbean experience

However, in the Caribbean, as in many developing countries, basic broadband service (2 Mbps download) is still costly if available, and not particularly reliable.  More importantly, it might be near impossible to maintain reasonable connectivity in terms of speed and reliability over the extended period of time required to successfully download and install software from the Internet. To illustrate, Table 1, provides approximate download times for the Mac OS X Lion, which is 3.49 GB. The download speeds listed are a combination of speeds recorded using online speed test facilities, and those anticipated for select broadband packages.

Table 1: Approximate download times for the Mac OS X Lion using select broadband Internet packages (Calculations: www.123myip.co.uk)

From the table, unless you are lucky enough to enjoy download speeds over 10 Mbps, it is increasingly likely that connectivity difficulties will be experienced. However, there are few countries in the English-speaking Caribbean where those higher speeds are available – Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Based on our recent Snapshot, the highest broadband speed available in most countries is 8 Mbps, which means it could take at least 2 hours to download the Lion OS.

It is also important to note that due to the widespread proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other highly portable devices, along with the growing emphasis towards cloud computing, modest- to moderately-sized hard drives are becoming the norm. However, the latest wave of products and services on the Internet are generally more dependent than ever on locally stored or cached content. Some, such as video streaming and the provision of software through downloading of very large files, may not work without local caching. Depending on the size of the cache on a user’s local hard drive, this can also affect the quality of the user’s download experience.

Implications for the Caribbean

Although the unavailability of installation CDs for a popular software platform might be signalling the end of an era, it also is highlighting the fact that most of the English-speaking Caribbean is at a considerable disadvantage with respect to Internet connectivity. Although ISPs in most countries are able to offer 2 Mbps (the minimum broadband speed), this does not necessarily mean that the countries are in a position to capitalise on all of the features, products and services that are available over the Internet. Some of the implications of this situation are:

  • Residents experience considerable difficulties accessing critical data or resources over the Internet.
  • Access to locally developed content creation could be severely hindered.
  • Due to the close proximity of the Caribbean to the United States and even Europe, business visitors, if they have a choice, would be more inclined to select countries that allow them to use a broad range of Internet facilities.
  • Such limited Internet speeds make our countries less competitive, and less attractive for investment, even if they might qualify for near shore operations.
  • It inevitably results in a widening of the digital divide.
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