We have a restless situation going on in the computing industry. As it comes to software development platforms and operating systems, the status quo has been compromised. Things are moving fast, and numerous developers and companies are scrambling for their piece of the action.
This is great. "Finally", many would say, and rightfully so.
For so many years, the computing world was stuck using a single vendor's products, and as far as the industry as a whole is concerned, this was not a good thing (although it did allow for a measure of "standardization", but at the expense of allowing complete dominance to be held by a single company). Thanks to the ongoing mobile revolution, things have changed and platform variety again has become a reality; the once dominant single vendor is now struggling to get any market share at all in this brave new world. (you all know which vendor I'm talking about, right?)
But what did we learn?
The CEO of that company once made a statement that became well known: "developers, developers, developers". I think that we all got it. We learned it. And we have gone off to apply it. And it makes sense; for a software environment to have any value, there needs to be developers. That is where it all starts to be useful and interesting.
But something else was also learned (unfortunately, I might say): The strategy of platform lock-in. Whereas the monopoly on desktop computing was created through "developers, developers, developers", all developing for the single desktop operating system platform, making everyone unable to use anything else at all, there are companies now that are attempting to establish a monopoly on mobile computing using an exact replica of the same formula. There's nothing really new or innovative in what is happening: Make an operating system, convince great masses to develop for it and to invest all their systems and their expertise on it, and ultimately try to make it so that they can never use anything else. Prevent competitors from competing, establish barriers to entry, enjoy your long-standing competitive advantage.
This was done before, and it seems to be happening again. Nothing new here. Attempt to achieve dominance and monopoly through developer lock-in. This will be good for the company that owns the dominant system, but will greatly hinder the opportunities to innovate for everybody else.
I think what we SHOULD have learned is that having a dominating platform controlled by a single vendor is not a good thing, and that such a thing should not be allowed to take place. Even more than that, it should not need to be attempted, even. Why would it not be OK for different companies and products to co-exist and interoperate? Why on earth is it necessary to try to kill everyone else off and have it all to oneself? Surely this is not the only way to generate value?
The race in the mobile world is still wide open. Up to now, different platforms are emerging and others are disappearing. So we still have the opportunity to vote with our feet (or, I suppose, as the case is about developers, with our fingers). As an industry, we should ensure that we do not let a single vendor dictate to us the terms by which we do business. To have a marketplace that is vibrant and competitive, we need a world where multiple competing software development platforms and operating systems can co-exist and interoperate. They need to be able to exchange data, communicate, and share applications with one another.
The technical solutions to do that are one thing (at Job and Esther Technologies, we also do that). But as people in the industry, we should actually want for that to happen. We should have the will. And then we should put our actions and efforts to support that will.
