By mid-1997, I was writing professionally about Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) as a monthly columnist in Boardwatch Magazine.
In 2000, I began writing about BWIA full time in my own blogs, for numerous other publications, and my own subscription newsletter.
From 2008 - 2015, I took a hiatus from writing about BWIA, but my interest in BWIA did not wane. From 2016 - 2020 I worked to resume writing full time.
Android As Trojan Horse
Google's not perfect. It's making mistakes all the time. Sometimes it realizes its mistakes. Other times it doesn't (it has a horrible history with respect to Broadband Wireless Internet Access). But one thing Google has gotten right... sooner and faster than its competitors in the computing and Internet industry is to put heavy lifting of computing "into the background" and enable lightweight applications that need little more from the operating system than to support TCP/IP communications, printing, and a web browser.
Google has contributed two key technologies to that end - Android OS, a Linux distribution with a small footprint (both memory and CPU usage), and Chrome, a browser that does things so well it immediately (to me) feels like this is how a web browser should be. I'm using Chrome on a PC at work, and even in its current, incomplete form, it's incredibly usable... and fast. I can't wait for Chrome to be fully ported to the Mac.
But the vast majority of analysts, commenters, and observers overlook the true nature of Andoid - that it's not going to remain "confined" to mobile devices. Because Android is open source, it will be able to morph into devices much different than the classic "pocket portable" mobile device.
Android will become a major force in a new generation of inexpensive and simple desktop computers. Google's backing will combine with attention that is being paid by third parties that want to use Andoid on their mobile devices to fixing the deficiencies and lacks in Android that Google has overlooked. Combine those underpinnings of speed, efficiency, and things that only "Google Scale" can provide, like an App Store, comingled with stellar efforts in Linux desktop usability like Ubuntu, and the stage is set for a new generation of simple, inexpensive, ubiquitous, "desktop" computers.
Of course... what enables this scenario is Broadband Internet Access... and Broadband Wireless Internet Access will have a fundamental role to play.
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
Posted by Steve Stroh on February 16, 2009 at 07:48 in BWIA Industry Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0)