Wednesday 29 April 2009

Irony: Is Google Android to the operating system what Internet explorer was to the Web browser market?

I love history because it's where you can appreciate irony.

Watching the tale of the Android operating system unfold reminds me of how Microsoft went about competing in the internet world. they embedded their internet browser in their operating system and did what they could to make theirselves dominant. they made it free, relatively easy to use and due to its proliferation every site had to work with it. Thus they created a virtual monopoly that was hard to break down. 

funny thing is that mobile is becoming the defacto standard particularly in less well developed countries as pcs and even laptop are beginning to feel cumbersome and limited. Android is apparently an operating system for a new age built on the best free solutions of the old age. It's offered completely free and designed to work on many different mobile devices. 

Naturally it's going to embed google's strengths into it and make them freely available and extremely easy to use. So it's only natural that the very approach Microsoft use to gain dominance in the web browser market has been utilised to bring about a serious competitor to their very dominance in their mainstay. The cheap flexible operating system that's a household name. 

I'm watching this saga with interest because either way we all should benefit since it's all about helping us connect better. I think google may have the upper hand because they have a less chequered past and seem to have learnt from the mistakes Microsoft has made aswell as the good choices. We'll see how long this continues. 

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