Stephen O'Grady, analyst for RedMonk, argues that the trend in Web technology, as well as other products, is gearing toward simplicity. Clients often demand more features and functionality, but successful products continue to be characterized by simplicity in design and simplicity in function. O'Grady gives examples of simplicity driving success, such as Google's home page design, the lightness of Firefox and TiVo's simple user interface.

Using examples from consumer product design and marketing, O'Grady shows that simplicity is becoming key in many industries, due to the increasing complexity of modern life and the greater demands on consumers' time. Designers and programmers need to embrace this new paradigm in order to succeed.

Simplicity in design and function are aspects users can easily see, but O'Grady argues that real simplicity in programming results in less code, and PHP is a language that encourages simplicity and less code. Less code means faster run time, lighter programs and fewer bugs, and using a simple language like PHP also reduces the time spent learning the language. Given the simple nature of PHP and the success of long-tail products and applications, O'Grady argues that the future of PHP is very bright indeed.