Date: 2011-04-29 19:08:11 Created: 2011-04-29 15:01:10
Android is not like Windows PC:s in the PC ”wars” of the past.
it is like Windows in the PC world right now.
An OS running on vast arrays of different hardware, trying to compete against a combined hardware and software platform created and controlled by one company. One company which is maintining their control and direction really well. Android will never be Windows in the PC wars, because Google is not Microsoft of the past (throat-cuttingly ruthless) and because competition (Apple) is much better in this case. The Windows near-monopoly was an anomaly, or a kind of perfect storm. It existed while no competitor was as good at its own thing as Microsoft was at its, and it has been eroding ever since competitors started getting their acts together. Then the OS on the widespread hardware began to fall back, ever so slowly.
Android, pretty much always in the game with really good competitors, never had a chance (or, perhaps as importantly, the aggressive mindset the Microsoft of Christmas past had) to get that dominant position to begin with. That is the main difference to Windows and Microsoft. Now, though, they are in the very same position.
(Illustrative side note: Apple tried being Microsoft and licensing their OS for a while, and look how much good that did them. Finding their own visions and staying true to them, they could start to do thing better than everyone else, and start to move ahead.)