What it is: iOS is Apple’s mobile operating system derived from OS X.
IF anyone was around during the early PC days, they’ll remember that CP/M-80 dominated the business world. Back then if you wanted to use a computer for business, you pretty much had to use CP/M-80. At the time, CP/M-80n enthusiasts could rightly claim that they had the largest installed base of users, so it only made sense for other business users to also use CP/M-80.
Then MS-DOS arrived with the IBM PC, and a new standard was born. Software from CP/M-80 got ported over to MS-DOS such as WordStar and dBASE II while VisiCalc soon got clobbered by the arrival of Lotus 1-2-3 which was optimized for MS-DOS. Pretty soon MS-DOS dominated the business world and CP/M-80 was out.
Now you can see the change in business operating systems once more. Right now, Windows still dominates the business world, yet PC Magazine’s Tim Bavarian writes: “Windows and Mac OS X have been my operating systems of choice for years, while iOS and Android have been supplemental OSes for smartphones and tablets. But I believe there is a changing of the “OS” guard happening as younger tech users move into the business world.”
As more younger workers move into the corporate world, they tend to bring with them an iPhone and an iPad. Most likely they won’t be as wedded to Windows as older workers who grew up using Windows. That means the business world will gradually shift from Windows to iOS.
You can already see the change happening. At one time it would have been ridiculous to suggest that businesses look at anything other than Windows. Today, it’s common to ask whether a business needs Windows or not. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don’t. Back in the 90’s, every business absolutely needed Windows to survive. Today Windows is now an option, not a necessity.
Without the dominance of the business market, Windows will simply linger and gradually fade away like CP/M-80. CP/M-80 worked just as well as MS-DOS. It’s just that the business world decided to standardize on MS-DOS instead just as more and more workers in the business world are relying on iOS devices instead of Windows smartphones or Windows tablets.
You can argue all you want about the benefits of Windows, but you can’t ignore the fact that more and more people are questioning whether they need Windows any more. As more people question the need for Windows, that just means more people will decide they don’t need Windows after all.
In the meantime, more people will continue using iOS in iPhones and iPads. Plus Apple has morphed iOS into watchOS to run the Apple Watch and tvOS to run the Apple TV. As both the Apple Watch and Apple TV grow in popularity, that just fixes iOS more firmly into both the business and home market in a way that Windows or any other competitor like Android will find hard to compete against.
The future is iOS whether you like it or not. You can fight it just like people clung to CP/M-80 for too long, but the longer you fight changing trends, the more likely you’ll just hurt yourself in the long run. For everyone else who wants to see what the future holds, you can’t go wrong following iOS just as you couldn’t go wrong in the 90’s following Windows.