In the world of automobiles, we have all sorts of choices:
Ferrari. Lamborghini, Porsche, Maserati, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Aston Martin…and that’s just the high end. There’s cars for ever price, speed, mileage and capacity.
What about consumer computers?
Apple OS X. Microsoft Windows. (Linux has had more the enough time to be consumer-friendly, their priority is obviously dominating the world’s servers).
When we get to mobile OS’s there are a few more to choose from, but not many:
Apple iOS. Google Android. RIM’s Blackberry OS. And, until recently, the wonderful (I thought) webOS by Palm. And soon, Windows Phone 7 (I’ll count Symbian like I count the Ford Pinto as a viable choice for a car in the late 70’s).
When we get down to it, RIM doesn’t understand consumer products (yet?), Android is just getting around to getting more user-friendly and webOS was doing well until they got derailed by HP’s acquisition of Palm. I’m interested to see how Windows Phone 7 does. The problem is Microsoft, like RIM, doesn’t understand consumer products. Windows Phone 7 looks interesting, but too progressive for the average consumer.
We have Apple as the only true contender for the easiest, most holistic consumer computers, computer operating system and mobile operating system.
Where are the other contenders?
Who else understands design?