Next Consumer OS

by alejandro

Posted on October 27, 2017

12

W/ MS increasingly focusing on the enterprise, will another OS (e.g., Chrome or Mac OSX) dominate the consumer space in the near future (3-5 years)?

Comments (12)

12 responses to “Next Consumer OS”

  1. Ron Diaz

    iOS and Android.


    Next question.....

    4 years ago
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  2. Patrick3D

    No, most productivity software is only written and available for Windows. There are certainly many people that would be fine with something like a Chromebook, but that requires a higher comfort level with online interaction than most adults have. It's really up to Google to invest more into a ChromeOS ecosystem. Apple is too expensive and Android is too complicated. You don't see anyone building custom PC's and installing ChromeOS on them, people do that with MacOS due to the high cost of Apple computers.

    4 years ago
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  3. TheJoeFin

    Dominate the consumer space on what type of device? Laptops and desktops will continue to be dominated by Windows because that is where all the programs live.


    Do you think that Windows doesn't work as a consumer OS for laptops and desktops?


    As for smaller handheld devices that will continue to be dominated by iOS and Android. Honestly I see ChromeOS's biggest competitor as the phones that everyone already has. Why buy a laptop which can only browse the web when I can do all that on my phone?

    4 years ago
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  4. rameshthanikodi

    probably Android or Chrome OS, although the difference between the two are becoming less important.

    4 years ago
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  5. hrlngrv

    It won't be macOS unless Apple goes insane and exchanges what have been steady high profit margins on relatively low volume for low profit margins for all the headaches and risks of chasing high volume.

    A hybrid of Chrome OS and Android which offered crouton/Linux and other alternative environments as apps, like DOSBox, distributed through Google Play/Chrome App Store might be interesting more broadly. If there were such an app/subsystem with Crossover or an actively maintained wine able to run older 32-bit Windows software, it just might be a real threat to Windows.

    However, the thing which keeps Windows safe and UWP as a niche product is all the older Windows software MANY PC users still want to use. [In my own case, I bought 7 decades of National Geographic on CDs back in the 1990s, and I still go through them periodically. No chance they're ever becoming UWP/Store apps/content.]

    4 years ago
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    • Greg Green

      In reply to hrlngrv:

      Rather than go for high volume they could go for medium volume and be an option for all those disgruntled windows users if they dropped their prices somewhat. But they're not even paying attention to their own desktop users, so the chances of them caring about others is slim.

      4 years ago
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      • John Scott

        In reply to Greg Green: Agreed Apple could address the price point to attract more Mac users. They have basically ignored the Mac Mini a really viable and affordable Mac. They don't seem to even enter in to the $700- $800 range and frankly seem to have gone the opposite direction. I used Mac's for 10 years and would not go back to them right now.


        4 years ago
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        • hrlngrv

          In reply to John_Scott:

          Re Mac Mini, it loses one of the Mac's main selling points: it just works. True for iMac all-in-ones. No longer true when needing to connect an external monitor and perhaps non-Apple keyboards and mice.

          I believe choice is good, but my impression of Mac buyers (including my daughters) is that they prefer simplicity to choice. Mac Minis are the least simple of Apple's Mac offerings.

          That said, from my own comparisons, Mac Minis still cost at least US$300 more than HP or Dell mini PCs and small form factor PCs with the same processor, RAM and storage. Mac Minis may be better value than iMacs, but they're still overpriced.

          4 years ago
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  6. John Scott

    When you go to buy a PC as a consumer your basically given a Windows world choice. Sure Chromebook's have success in Education and Mac's are still a option but still lack any real market share with their pricing on Mac's limiting buyers. Remember when the White MacBook really spurred on Mac sales. Yea, that's gone now, and I would guess the Chromebooks have some chance given many consumers are basically a web centric type PC user. Improve the Android part of Chrome OS to having really good desktop apps not ported smartphone apps and Chromebooks have a shot. But honestly Windows in some shape or form like Windows 10S will still control the consumer market in my opinion. Most consumers have used Windows a long time and I haven't really seen anything to make many convert to something else yet.

    4 years ago
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  7. Bats

    I have been so cloud focused that I all I need from an OS is to get to the cloud.

    4 years ago
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  8. MutualCore

    Windows CoreOS with a foldable Surface device = win!

    4 years ago
    0

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