War of the rOSes – Apple, Google & Microsoft

Recently, the 3 computing giants shot across each other’s bows with exciting news for us consumers.

1. This month, Apple announced some of its best financial results and its stock is rocking.  The more surprising news is that all of a sudden, interest in a much (long standing) speculated story of Apple introducing a computer that is a combination of a tablet and a Netbook (what is a Netbook?) has skyrocketed with credible sources now being quoted by appleinsider.com.  Why this revival?  Well, timing – Microsoft is on track to release its new OS called Windows 7 (manufacturers of PCs – Aug 6 and general consumers – October 22, 2009) in multiple flavors.  All indications from beta testers (me included) is that Windows 7 is good stuff.  Apple has sorely lacked anything to compete with the Netbooks.  For long, it has taken the high road of not wanting to cheapen its computing experience by putting out a low cost product.  For those of you that are not familiar with Apple products, know that Apple produces both, its hardware and software which, results in a stable computing environment (yes, it is a debatable issue of Mac v/s PC) and, therefore a high satisfaction rate amongst the ‘Mac’ population of computing users.  Everything, from the $500 million order for flash disks with Toshiba, order of 10″ screens, spy photos of the device body released from China/Taiwan, financial industry analyst/reporters announcing the product in works, etc. indicates that a lower cost (notice, I did not say ‘low’) product is on track for a September release time frame in order to counteract the release of Windows 7 based Netbooks.  September 27-30, 2009 is when an iPhone Developers Conference (2nd one) takes place in Denver, Colorado.
2. The release of Apple’s 64 bit Snow Leopard is positioned for September as well. Well ahead of the Windows 7 release for general consumers for October 22, 2009.  The upgrade price for Snow Leopard is $29 (twenty nine).  It will include 64 bit versions of Safari, Finder, Mail, iCal®, and iChat®.  Brace up!  For the first time around, we as consumers are going to see OS wars where we, as the consumers will experience the thrill of being wooed by three new OS offerings vying and competing for our favor.  Microsoft just spent $100 million on its marketing campaign for its new search engine ‘Bing.’ So, expect a grander scaled marketing effort for Windows 7.  Recently, Microsoft announced the opening of two retail stores and their goal is to open a retail store right next to Apple’s retail stores.
3. So, what are the chances of an Apple product that embodies both #1 and #2 above?  Excellent.  The new Apple device/Netbook/tablet or say, ‘iBook/iSlate/Mac Book whatever‘ is likely to be based on the same software platform as the iPhone/iPod Touch.  This would instantly make all applications available for the existing devices available for the new device.  It is unlikely to have a phone built in though, support for VOIP/SIP services is inevitable.
4. Google recently announced the development of a free operating system based on its Chrome Browser platform. By the end of the year, it will release a version of the Chrome OS that is optimized for Netbooks.  An OS that is developed ground up to healthily support its web based applications.  Google’s web based applications are highly favored for: their essential but minimalistic feature sets, the fact that they are browser based and available at no cost.  By the middle of next year, Google will release the OS version for desktops.  In keeping with the Google tradition, the desktop OS will be free as well.  If you are wondering how good is the Chrome Browser, consider this:  it was launched nine months ago and has picked up 30 million Windows users to date.  Soon, it will be available for the Mac & Linux.  It is a given that with the Microsoft/Yahoo deal, web versions of Microsoft’s applications will emerge but, that offering is at least 3 years away given the governmental processes that need to be first cleared for that deal to materialize into anything operational/developmental.

Cheers!