October 6th, 2010
Newsweek reports on how Android is taking over the mobile world while the mobile world is taking over EVERYTHING! Some choice excerpts:
The mobile revolution may be the biggest wave ever to hit the world of computing. Just as mainframes gave way to minicomputers, which in turn gave way to personal computers, the PC now is being displaced by smart phones and tablets.
Hmmm. Smart phones are bigger than the microchip? Bigger than the networked computer? Bigger than web browser? Bigger than . . . nevermind. If something is happening now, it must be the biggest. Thing. EVER! Last in, first out, baby.
So what happens when most of the residents of planet Earth carry a device that gives them instant access to pretty much all of the world’s information? The implications–for politics, for education, for global economics–are dizzying. In theory, the mobile revolution could enable citizens to demand greater openness and accountability from their governments.
Yup, before you know it, people will be using their smart phones to pay for Starbucks! And not just requesting, but demanding, more transparency from their governments.
The struggle between Google and Apple today looks a lot like the battle between Apple and Microsoft in the PC era. Back then, Apple leapt out to an early lead with the Macintosh, whose revolutionary operating system ran only on Apple machines. But Microsoft came up with a version of Windows that could compete with the Mac. Because Microsoft licensed its software to all of the world’s computer makers, it eventually controlled 90 percent of the market.
I read in some book that there was actually a computer market even before Windows. Something called DOS or whatnot. A great American inventor by the name of Thomas Edison realized that by giving the ancient rune “C:\” to the Great Computing Tribes he could create a near monopoly which was even taking shape as early as 1984!
Sigh.
Android may or not be a great OS. It may or may not eventually deliver some actual profit to Google. (Because unlike MS-DOS, I don’t believe that Google gets any cut back from the hardware makers. I could be wrong.) But Android isn’t designed to make money for Google. It is, as Steve Jobs rightly understood from the start, designed to kill the iPhone–which would have the consequence of crippling Apple as a corporate rival.
No comments yet, be the first:
