Modern mobile operating systems are all the hype, and we’re feeling it here at GORGES – clients are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of mobile technology.
The major contenders when it comes to mobile operating systems are Android, iOS (more commonly known as iPhone, iPad and iPod), and Windows Phone 7 – all fantastic mobile operating systems, it is hard to even begin to compare them to their predecessors.
But why were we suddenly (these past few years) imbued with these brilliant new OS’es?
The answer of course is advances in hardware – lower cost, more computation power, high resolution displays and multi-touch, more storage, faster wireless networks, longer battery life… and on top of all that, advances in nanotechnology has made everything smaller and lighter, too.
My point with this little article, is to share with you an observation that has surfaced in a few of my conversations lately: that these new mobile operating systems are part of a transition towards “real” operating systems running on mobile devices. In fact, I’ve taken to referring to them as “transition operating systems” myself.
The evolution of mobile hardware does not cease. What made these new OS’es possible, is the fact that mobile devices are now almost as fast as “real” computers – and that same progress will put an end to them, too.
Soon, mobile devices will be fast enough to run “real” operating systems – and when that time comes, why would you want a dedicated mobile OS, or even a mobile device dedicated to wireless communications, such as your phone? If you could run a real Windows, OSX or Linux OS on your device, why wouldn’t you? At least two of the major players in mobile hardware, NVidia and QualComm, are currently racing to bring quad-core processors to market this year, so it may be more imminent than you think.
I suspect certain companies, such as Apple, are already having the same realization – it was recently rumored that certain features are being migrated from iOS to OSX. My guess is, they’re getting ready to add support for iOS apps to OSX, with the intent of running OSX on a mobile device in the no-too-distant future.
This is all speculation, of course – and either way, it doesn’t diminish the value of the mobile “transition” operating systems, which paved the way for new advances in user interface / user experience development, and have set new standards for human-machine interfaces overall.
And it certainly doesn’t mean that you should hold out on your business ideas – waiting for real operating systems to hit your cell phones – the new mobile platforms are already embedded in our lives, and they are inevitably here to stay, in some form or another.
Another example to support your idea is HP’s webOS. HP already announced that webOS will be installed in one way or another on HP laptops and PCs in the future.
For many people, your phone will be your computer. We already see some of this where you can plug into a dock that connects a keyboard, mouse and display. I think we’ll even see a phone peripheral for your phone (essentially a headset), so you can take a call while you’re docked in.
Interestingly virtualizaton may change the equation entirely. Already we see Bluestack is working with Citrix to bring Android to Windows desktops and tablet. With enough power, why not have (for example) an Android phone/tablet run a virtual Windows desktop?