Google, Apple, Microsoft - who will rule the future operating system market?

Computing power makes the life simpler with fancy features. Computing power unifies our life online, helps to pull threads together. The operating system is the brain of the computer. The operating system of a computing device is the software that helps the device support the applications that run on it. The most popular operating systems are Windows, Linux / Unix, OSX, iOS, Chrome OS, and Android. Some of these operating systems, like Windows, Linux, and OSX, run primarily on traditional computers, while others run on phones and tablets. All operating systems manage memory, communications, disk usage, power consumption, audio and video, input devices, and the behavior of concurrently running applications. The operating system is centrally important to create a pleasant and productive user experience for the user. So that users often choose their computing devices based on the operating system they run. Today’s tech giants have adopted markedly different strategies in developing their product lines and services, and their approaches have evolved over the time. But the question is which will rule the market of the operating system in the future?

Actually, we can’t able to predict exactly the future, but we can observe where the things are going. So, let's see -

Microsoft has primarily focused on making its Windows operating system the dominant one for personal computers. They have tried, with very limited success, to extend windows to smartphones, and they have seen some promising but muted success in transitioning Windows to a touch-based interface that runs well on the slick hardware. Recently, they have created a mobile version of Microsoft Office that runs on all the popular mobile operating systems, including Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, the operating systems created by Microsoft’s fiercest competitors. And a few years ago, Microsoft released the newest version of Windows that is Win 10. Windows 10 meant to run as a service, which means that its numerous components will be independently upgradeable, just like an individual software application would be. Its operating system seems to be evolving more into a suite of applications. They have refocused their investment in software development but shifted that focus to developing applications rather than the operating system. Microsoft’s current answer is to focus on cloud services, which can be accessed and used regardless of what device you’re on. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the company is actively redesigning Windows to extend well beyond your PC.

 

Apple is very clearly a hardware company. Apple wants you to buy its devices, and its future depends on consumers doing just that. They limit their operating systems to run on their devices because they make tons of money on their hardware. OSX will run only on an Apple-made Mac; iOS will run only on an Apple-made iPad or iPhone. There are no other device manufacturers who can run an Apple-made operating system. This is by design. Apple's strategy is slightly more nuanced, price-wise than either Google or Microsoft. Those companies will have products coming in at multiple price points, but the best stuff will probably hover around $500. For Apple, there's a low-end iPad without keyboard and stylus, or the Pros that start at $599 and go up as you add necessary accessories. And Apple's not wrong at all in this strategy. The iPad Pros are very powerful, very capable computers. They have several huge advantages over their two competitors. Several million advantages, in fact, and they're called iPad apps. Compared to both Android and modern-style Windows Store apps, there are so many more good quality iPad apps that it's not even a discussion.

Microsoft isn’t the only company patenting a dual-screen device. Apple is also interested in developing a modernized laptop that ditches the keyboard. According to a handful of new patents from Apple, the company wants to expand the Touch Bar across the entire deck of the MacBook Pro. This will make touch controls readily available on its laptop, laying the foundation to intertwine the functionality of iOS and MacOS. Add in the framework for universal iOS apps, and you’ve got something that sounds an awful lot like merging its mobile and desktop operating systems.

 

Whereas Microsoft is now a software applications company, and Apple is a hardware company, Google has become the operating system company. Google’s Android and Chrome OS operating systems were designed to run on lots of different devices, including devices that don’t even interact with humans but instead communicate with other devices as part of networks. Because of this focus on the operating system an exciting tech direction that seeks to create a network of autonomous devices to respond to their owners’ needs and to their environment. They just want their operating system to run on it. Google has been transforming Chromebooks into touch-friendly devices for over a year now. Google’s operating system called Fuchsia has been built to go beyond the boundaries of mobile (Android) and desktop (Chrome OS) platforms, or perhaps, converge them in a more meaningful way. It reimagines some of the basic structures of traditional computing like windows, multitasking, and opening apps. It’s built around fullscreen apps, like a mobile device, but gives you a clear view of what apps you have open, similar to Mac OS’ multi-desktop view. At the center of it all is an amorphous Google search bar, which can do everything from open local apps and files to search the web. Although it’s bare-bones, Fuchsia gives a peek into one possible future.

 

Besides all of these, there is another one operating system belongs to that is Linux which created by Linus Torvalds on August 25, 1991. That open-source operating system is one of the most important pieces of computer software in the world. If you're on an iPhone or a Mac or a Windows machine, Linux is working behind the scenes, across the Internet, serving up most of the web pages you view and powering most of the apps you use. Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Wikipedia - it's all running on Linux. For decades, Unix was the standard operating system for commercial computing, but there was a catch. It was owned by AT&T, and it only ran on high-end equipment. Linux is now finding its way onto televisions, thermostats, and even cars. As software creeps into practically every aspect of our lives, so does the OS designed by Linus Torvalds. It's hard to pin down exactly how popular Linux is on the web, but according to a study by Unix and Unix-like operating systems power about 67 percent of all web servers. At least half of those run Linux and probably the vast majority. In 2012, the company announced that it would let companies run Linux on its cloud computing service, Microsoft Azure. Microsoft itself is using Linux for some of the networking techs behind the scenes of Azure. There are a few reasons for all this is that while Windows Server licenses cost money, most versions of Linux are free to download and use even for commercial purposes. Linux's reach now extends so much further than smartphones. You can already find Linux in smart TVs from companies like Samsung and LG, Nest thermostats, Amazon's Kindle e-readers, and drones from companies like 3DR. Those huge displays in Tesla cars are powered by Linux, and many car companies including Toyota, Honda, and Ford sponsor the Automotive Grade Linux project, which is dedicated to building software for connected cars. In the future, chances are, you may use it every day. It might run every Android phone, gadgets, cars, tablet and many more things on Earth.

 

It's true that mobile operating systems and desktop operating systems are not cut from the same cloth; one was designed for touch, one for a mouse and keyboard. It’s not as easy as porting mobile apps to a laptop or strapping a keyboard onto a tablet. It needs to be flexible and contextual in a way that the current devices aren’t. It’d need to function fluidly regardless of what kind of computer or input devices you use with it. Google, Apple, and Microsoft are doing their best to create one.