Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, the largest cell phone provider in the world, is urging handset makers to cut down the number of operating systems they use.
He wants the 30 to 40 to go down to 3-5. Fewer operating systems would ease the job of developers, who would
only have to design software to work in several different iterations.
He praised Apple for raising the bar for the user interface.
Currently, the market is like this: 65% run on Symbian, 11% on Linux, followed by Microsoft Windows Mobile, Apple's cut down Mac OS/X, and RIM's proprietary Blackberry, according to IDC.
However, the future can see some consolidation. With Google Android making its debut this year, and supported by several handset manufacturers and Motorola announcing that they will adopt Linux for future phones, there will be fewer operating systems on the phones.
Sarin is not advocating a monoculture however. He says:
"Note, I didn't say one," the Vodafone CEO added, in a jab at Microsoft Corp. for its domination of the computer industry. "We've seen that movie before."
Yes, we have seen the movie, and it is not pretty.
Parallels in Linux and Open Source
I wrote previously on whether choice is good in open source. For cell phones, the lesser the number of operating system, the more applications can be ported across all of them, with lower development and support cost by software producers, and wireless service providers.
That is of course as long as it is not just 1 or 2 players.
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