Happened to watch the movie "Pirates of the Silicon Valley" a few days ago.
I must admit that the director has done a decent job narrating the history of the present day PC.
My intial impression was that it would be closer to a documentary than a movie.
But that was not to be.
Have just started thinking after watching the movie.
They say history repeats.
Is Apple iPhone v/s Android a repeat of Mac v/s PC.
Is Google doing what Microsoft did to Apple during the 80s ?
Is Google 'stealing' from iPhone ?
Will Android take over iPhone.
These are some questions that popped into my mind immediately after watching the movie.
There is no doubt that the mobile platform (netbooks, tablets, iPad, mobile phones etc) today is creating a revolution that is no lesser than the personal computer revolution of the 1980s.
Many companies that did not ride the wave during the PC revolution are today history or a faint shadow of their yesteryears.
So the giants today are more wary abot neglecting the mobile platform today.
I see that Intel is concentrating on its mobile platform more than ever. The space has been dominated by ARM for a long time.
That reminds me of the age old battle "PC v.s Mac".
I have heard people go gaga over the Macs features, boot up/shutdown time etc and complain about Windows' instability.
But what we tend to forget is the way that a Mac is designed is completely different from the way Windows is.
A Mac has its hardware and software tightly integrated. Each hardware that goes into a Mac is thouroghly tested.
On the other hand, Windows is written in a more generic way allowing compatibily for scores of devices.
Windows as such, I feel is not so unstable. What makes it unstable is the drivers that are written for the Operating System and the various different combinations that exist which certainly cannot be tested.
So, the way Windows works makes it possible to have a whole lot of devices to work considerably easily on Windows. But this is also the factor that introduces instability.
On the other hand, since Mac software is written with the hardware specifically in mind, it is very stable.
Each device that is Mac certified is tested thourougly.
This was the reason Microsoft introduced driver signing. This has improved things to a large extent but still cannot solve the problem entirely.
So, it is basically a trade off between device compatibilty and system stability.
The same applies for phones today.
On one hand, you have the Apple iOS with Apple strongly controlling the software that you can install on the iPhone.
All apps go through a serious approval process before being listed on the Apple Store.
A major reason for this, apart from a few others, I think is to ensure system stability.
On the other hand, you have the open Source Android being customized by each vendor for his platform.
Every vendor has his own UI running over vanilla Android.
While this introduces variety, you will still have stability issues.
And maybe, sofwares running on Android customized by one vendor may not even work on another's.
Over the past few days, Android has bee winning significant market share and has overtaken Apple iPhone.
As I sign this off, I am still wondering ,
Does history repeat ?
Is Apple iPhone v/s Android a repeat of Mac v/s PC.
Is Google doing what Microsoft did to Apple during the 80s ?
Is Google 'stealing' from iPhone ?
Will Android take over iPhone ?
Will the entry of Windows Phone7 change things in the mobile space.
Will there ever be a single platform leader for mobile devices like Windows for Pcs
We have to wait and watch ...
Would be nice to have you opinions/comments on this.
-Abhishek
Surprisingly, I have begun to develop for android of late. I feel google already has way too much control over my day to day tasks. Allowing it to control my cellphone data is just beyond my comfort. I am willing to sacrifice the ease and tight integration of Google apps with android and prefer a more "dumb" phone instead.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the single mobile platform you were mentioning is already here. It's android and its here to stay.
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ReplyDeletePCs for sure created a revolution in the 80s. The ultimate re-happening of that situation would be some revolutionary device getting invented today which sweeps the industry leaving the giants - Apple, Google, Microsoft - salivating.
ReplyDelete@venom : The point with android is that you get to control what you want. You will not be forced to used an android app. In fact, some carriers in US are packaging Bing on android phones since they have signed agreements with Microsoft. You get to control how much of your phone is controlled by Google. Android was a mobile platform by itself.Google acquired Android so that they could have a platform to deliver their software . But that certainly does not mean you will be forced to use Google products
ReplyDelete