On Thursday, the technology firm Gartner, released a report speculating that by 2017, Microsoft will become obsolete. For many, it is difficult to believe that the operating system giant which has dominated and continues to dominate the business world since the mid-1980s, will become obsolete just four years from now.
[ Related: Microsoft Obsolete by 2017 predicts Gartner ]
Gartner backs up its prediction, claiming that mobile devices have buried Microsoft in the depths of the sea of technology; that smartphones and tablets have completely taken over, and the need for a robust operating system like Windows, which run applications such as Photoshop, Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer -- amongst a slew of other mainstream applications, will be able to do the same on a phone, or a tablet sized operating system and screen -- to work Photoshop, or a business application on your Iphone, or tablet? This is the question to ask.
Gartner’s prediction is based solely on mobile technology, not desktop.
The marketing flair of Bill Gates and Microsoft may be a force to contend with, since Microsoft has a knack for taking over whichever market it feels is necessary to keep the corporation ahead of all others. There may be a purpose behind why Microsoft has not taken over the mobile market, and why it has not attempted to become the #1 tablet sales corporation -- it could be preparing for much more -- it could be looking ahead beyond smartphones and tablets; let’s remember one thing, Bill Gates and Microsoft didn’t become technological world leaders by mistake.
Gartner seems to justify its prediction with numbers that the general public may not comprehend by predicting that;
“In 2017, the total number of PCs, mobile phones, and tablets shipped will be 2.96 billion, and Android will have 1.47 billion of them, the report said. Windows will have 571 million, or second place, and Apple’s iOS/MacOS will be third at 504 million.”
In its prediction, Gartner never explained the operating system phenomena, and how Microsoft as an operating system could fail in just four years -- they didn’t mention Linux, or any other desktop OS which probably would have lent much credibility to their claim, and lay out to the non-tech public, why the largest OS corporation in the world may become "obsolete" in 2017.
Retrospectively, based on Gartner, they are predicting Microsoft’s fate, not the fate of the operating system. Microsoft’s operating system could become "obsolete," but not Microsoft the corporation.
Microsoft the corporation has proven its reputation for planning ahead, and for learning -- it watches -- and when it sees the moment to seize, it seizes it, just as it did in the browser and gaming industry. Microsoft’s philosophy could very well be “carpe diem.”
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