Page 97 - DENG101_Communication Skills-I

Communication Skills-I

Notes hovering around the 90 percent mark for well over a decade, Windows is effectively the standard
that developers must adopt unless they have very good reasons for remaining available to only
a small niche. It wasn’t always like this though, back in the early days of personal computers,
multiple different platforms existed and it wasn’t always easy to share data between them, let
alone entire programs. Software (including the operating system) became one of the main reasons
you’d choose one platform over another, and when smaller players became unsustainable and the
industry crystallized around the Windows and Macintosh, it was still software that differentiated
them. There are various reasons for which the Mac platform didn’t gain as much popularity as
Windows in the 1990s, but it’s always been a viable alternative.
Today’s mobile devices are in a similar situation. We have a number of completely different
platforms, mainly differentiated by their operating systems and all mutually incompatible.
Differences aren’t limited only to the look and feel of the hardware and software, but extend to
the kind of situations you’d want to use each of them in. Some have been developed with no-frills
business applications in mind, some with games and multimedia, and some trying to bridge the
two worlds.

In many ways, Apple is playing the same game it played with desktop computers—tightly
controlling the hardware and software to give users a premium and polished—if somewhat
constrained—experience. This time though, it’s had a clear first-mover advantage, arguably

defi ning the modern smartphone experience on its own. Recognizing that third-party software
is key to the platform’s success, Apple also created the App Store, which we now know to be
the center of the iOS ecosystem. Google, on the other hand, is playing things the way Microsoft
did twenty years ago: building only the software, and letting anyone who wants it use it. To
beat Apple’s early advantage, they decided to make it free of cost to manufacturers, and it’s
paid off. That’s how we have dozens of models from various manufacturers, and also why there
are so many differences in hardware, power, and usability. Android’s reach is now arguably
greater than iOS’s, but it comes at the cost of stability, predictability, and now also security—the
hallmark weaknesses of Windows. If Android continues to gain popularity, it will become the
default choice for software developers, and thus become the standard that everyone else must
become compatible with. In such a world, iOS, BlackBerry OS, WebOS and Windows Phone
would live on as niche minority options, or some of them would die out entirely. Who knows,
if Android truly is the Windows of the post-PC era, it might even overtake its desktop-bound
ancestor as malware authors’ favorite target.
(Source: Chip Magazine/ www.chip.in)

Keywords

Android OS: A Linux-based open source platform for mobile cellular handsets developed by
Google and the Open Handset Alliance.
No-frills: Without unnecessary extras, esp. ones for decoration or additional comfort.

Exercises

1. Suggest an alternative headline for the article.
2. Identify the parts of this article, i.e. lead, main body and conclusion.

3. Write down the main points of the article, i.e. what you infer from the article.
4. Rewrite the article in your own words.

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