“Apple is winning the OS wars, setting the agenda for the future of computing,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“Microsoft Windows has been dominant on PCs, but PC sales are in free fall. PCs will still be around, but they won’t be essential. Tablets, TVs and mobile devices will be suitable for most tasks. Microsoft has no significant presence in mobile (and won’t get one) and its operating system is fragmented. People are not upgrading.,” Evans writes. “Android dominates the mobile OS in terms of dumb sales but the devices that shore up its share are running old versions of the OS. Worse yet, they aren’t upgradable. The majority of Android devices sold in the shops today will never run the current OS version. They are dated the day you take them out of the box. When it comes to defining an OS future, they are a waste of time and money.”
“The Mac will continue to make gains at the expense of Windows, but will eventually mutate into becoming a sub-branch of iOS,” Evans writes. “Apple’s iOS is the king of the jungle. This is because an astonishing 70 percent of iOS devices are already running the latest Apple mobile operating system… Apple is in the cat-bird-seed [sic] [recte catbird seat] position to extend its operating systems into new device paradigms. Apple is winning the OS war.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005
KAABBOOOOOMMMMM!
What, ” cat-bird-seed” and I always thought is was cat-bird seat.
That never made sense to me but I also thought it was ‘seat’. It makes more sense as seed . . . top of the food chain.
It is Cat Bird Seat not seed. Just another writer ignorant or unfamiliar with the proverbial Lexicon. Some other one’s that have become mainstays for ignorant journalist are Standing On Line instead of Standing in Line. You don’t stand on a line you stand in one. Also Coming down the pipe, nope DA it’s coming down the Pike.
Actually in Britain you do stand on line.
What do the British know about English?
The English know everything about English. The British, on the other hand, is inclusive of those who have an indigenous lanuage, native to the islands, other than English.
Need a hand parsing that, botvinnik, or do you need lessons in English from an Englishman?
it was a joke, limey, keep your knickers on.
Same in New York. Get on line, wait on line, stand on line, etc. Anywhere else in the US it’s in line. On line (with a space as opposed to online) is kinda unique to NY.
Right. And in NYC, it’s also “Step down!” when it is your turn, not “step up” as in many other parts of the US. 🙂
In London we say Stand in line, well I do anyway.
Never heard of ‘stand on line’ except when caught drunk at the wheel anyway, not that many can manage it in that state.
I queue
Here, here! But you may be addressing people whom prolly could care less about concise expressions.
(Don’t worry too much. Maybe I know better.)
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catbird_seat
“The catbird seat” is an idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position, often in terms of having the upper hand or greater advantage in all types of dealings among parties.
Cat bird seat. Thats right. It will be magically changed.
Maybe it’s not a trick, after all
Saying that Apple is winning the OS war against MS is like blaming parents for their adult children making bad decisions in life. I didn’t know there was a “war” going on. The consumers will decide which company succeeds, not the companies themselves.
Didn’t know there was a war going on? Oooo-k
SJ didn’t believe that in order for apple to win, ms had to loose. It’s not a war. Media says it’s a war. Apple just wants to make great products for people. If people like them they’ll buy them. If they don’t, they won’t. It will all work itself out. SJ said that too, bye the way.
As if consumers have much of a say in this. Windows would be dead if it were down to consumer choice as their lack of interest in it in the mobile arena makes clear.
So much for his writing and thoroughness. “Cat-bird-seed?” Come on, do a little research if you’re going to use a cliche phrase like that, before you decide to put it out there not really knowing the correct phrase.
it’s called a mistake. These happen. It has been rectified.
An “auto-correct failure” perhaps, like “wardrobe failure?”
Sorry, but no mistakes are allowed on MDN.
In a way Cat-Bird-Seed could make some Bizarro sense. Cats eat birds and birds eat seeds.
While Windows anything is a virus magnet and Android is un-upgradeable and both are fragmented this explains the increased popularity of iApple products. Wow! Apple is in a good position.
Link is recursive!
MDN doesn’t strive for perfection like Apple does.
evidently not, they continue to let you post.
How about a little introspection, Botvinnik?
nah, that’s the mark of insecurity and lack of conviction. Thanks, though.
Aah yes thats the trademark of Blackberry isn’t it and it’s not like it ever did them any harm assuming they were so perfect did it.
Why they continue to let you post is a mystery beyond human comprehension.
botvinnik that is, not 313.
bravely spoken, unregistered troll.
Posting under the name botvinnik and being a nasty little shit online is brave how exactly?
John, it’s not really a mystery. You get more points for comedy than for on-topic remarks. Most of the articles are ho-hum, but sprinkle a key word into the headline and the comics are out in force, driving up the comment count. A similar system applies to politics.
You link to yourself, MDN. 😛
bkire:
Where have you been (head in sand)? There has been an OS war since the beginning of time (a little hyperbole). It’s called competition in a PC (politically correct) way, and, yes, the consumer will determine the victor, but it is a war, albeit, bloodless.
Watch out, it’s a trick
Just looked around. There is no war. No one has died.
You wouldn’t want an all-mac world. You would have nothing to complain about.
Anyone who hasn’t read Thurber’s hilariously dry, dark short story “The Catbird Seat” should drop what they’re doing and read it right away. I found a version of dubious copyright here:
http://jameshilston.com/pages/reading/catbird_seat.htm
I think I’ll wait for the movie as long as there’s some scantily-clad actress playing the role of Mrs. Barrows. Otherwise… Now I understand the reason Steve Jobs said that nobody reads anymore.
now that OS X is free, mobile computing are taking over traditional computing, Apple is shitkicking MS now.
Can you believe MSFT is still charging $$ for Windows Mobile? Amazing.
The day the Mac OS “mutates” into a sub-branch of iOS is the day we kick Apple to the curb.
iOS is too limiting for real work. You know, Johnny Evans, there are still people who do serious work in the world, and it isn’t done on mobile phones and tablets.
That’s an elitist jerky attitude. When a pilot takes an iPad with him on a plane to navigate, is he not doing ‘real work’? A doctor who uses it to diagnose or communicate with a patient is not doing real work??
Maybe it does not suit your needs, but don’t project your needs onto everyone else. Sure there are still some limitations on the iPad and iOS by design and some are actually beneficial to many types of real actual work. The areas where the Mac is better it will likely be around for a long time.
“The areas where the Mac is better it will likely be around for a long time.”
Not if they turn everything into drastically crippled versions of themselves, a la (so-called) Pages.
If desktop computers are trucks, let them remain trucks. Don’t turn them into large Smart Cars.
I remember when people claimed that those puny little desktops weren’t for real work you needed cooled rooms and paper tape for that.
Sweeping the streets is real work, and doesn’t require a smartphone or tablet, your point is?
The alleged “point” is meant to marginalise these devices, excluding them from the hallowed category of Computing, keeping it hard core and free from dilettantes, preserving the original-sin hacker ethic for its self-congratulatory membership. Only coders need apply.
The silliness is that this idea was always a sham, a convenient fiction sullen young men nurtured and formed into an exclusionary mythos.
They got away with it for twenty years, but the generations caught up with them and passed them by and now they are pissed. Fear of technology is a thing of the past; now shamans are regarded as plumbers.
“Real work” are code words that signify a world view, a caste system, an ethos, and an invitation to subscribe to an ideology so medieval, so insistent on the superiority of the guild principle, that it is a wonder anyone can still take it seriously.
Who says Apple is winning the OS war? What’s Android daily activations up to by now? Something like 5 million activations per day. iOS registers about 5 thousand activations per day. It’s all in the numbers, baby. Eric Schmidt was seen strutting and clucking like crazy on Black Friday. He likes Google’s way. He likes it a lot.
/s
This just in, free sells big time.
I think it was deliberate…
Apple is in the cat-bird-seed [sic] [recte catbird seat]
While I was waiting to go into a concert this evening, a guy wanted to show me a photo of something on his phone. It was a WinPhone, Sony or Nokia, and I watched him struggle to locate the folder his photos were in. It was painful and embarrassing; he must have spent several minutes hopping backwards and forwards on those stupid coloured squares, trying to find the right folder, and even then he couldn’t locate the correct sub-folder.
He eventually found it. I’d already lost the will to live…
Had it been baby pictures, you’d have been doubly distressed.
thats a funny story.
i once got a friend who had an iphone,wanted to show me a photo of something…and struggle to locate the folder his photos were in.it was painful and emabarassing…i’d already cry…
jk.
btw every phone had its stooopid users.