Is there room for one more operating system?
The smartphone operating system market has been a duopoly for as long as one can think of. It’s run by two giants Google (with their Android) and Apple (with their iOS). As of now it almost feels like it is impossible to take on these giants if a new competitor wishes to make its place in this market. If you’ve been following the current events in the tech world, then you must have heard about the Huawei ban. Huawei has been banned from dealing or making any kind of transactions with any US company. That leaves them crippled, mostly because it means they won’t get support from Google for services like YouTube, Gmail, Chrome etc on their devices. To make things worse after 3 months of the grace period that the US government has given them, their current devices will not get any security or major updates. They can still use the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) but without any services from Google that wouldn’t really help their case much.
Can anyone disrupt this market duopoly?
With Apple and Google leading the smartphone OS market, can a third player even make its place in the market? iOS is specific to Apple devices only, and I’m sure they aren’t looking at an aggressive expansion plan. That leaves every other smartphone manufacturer with only one option, Android. And if Google one day decides to pull support Android on any of these companies’ devices, well, they might never really exist as they did before.
However, there is someone who can take on these giants. Wondering who? Think harder. Nope? Nothing? Can’t think of anyone? Okay, we’ll tell you. KaiOS. Yes, though, it might sound like any other Chinese company. It’s not one. It’s actually an American company, based in San Diego, California. It is a Linux-based mobile operating system. Rather than boring you guys with the technical jibber-jabber, let’s talk about how this company managed to get into the spotlight.
They managed to capture one of the world’s biggest mobile phone market ‘India’ by partnering with a company which is not unfamiliar to almost any of us. Yes, you probably guessed it, Reliance Jio. JioPhone, aka the cheapest 4G smartphone one can get right now is powered by KaiOS. It can run all the basic apps like WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, a whole host of Jio apps and many more.
KaiOS has the potential to be the OS of the future but will it be able to take over the likes of Android and iOS is a question that only time can answer. But what if the goal of KaiOS is not to take over their competitor’s market, but to make their own market and thrive in that. It does seem likely looking at the hefty $22M investment that Google made in KaiOS. Google is certainly not stupid to dig its own grave. Or cut the branch they are sitting on. Or, last one, hit an axe on their own feet. Okay, idioms aside, Google seems to believe that KaiOS is a smart investment and they do seem to believe that it is not one that will kill their own cash cow ‘Android’.
Alright, so KaiOS is all there is after Android and iOS, right?
Actually, no. There are other operating systems floating around in the market, one associated with none other than Google as well. These OS’ include Fuchsia, a Google project that may or may not replace Android, Blloc, a monochrome themed clean and simple OS, and Firefox OS, a discontinued open-source operating system.
While Fuchsia is still in the making and may or may not ever come out, it looks promising. Google is trying their hand on something very different from their existing OS. Fuchsia looks neat and precise. It might be a probable replacement to Android as it is built on a kernel that allows it to be used cross-platform. Checkout this video by Mrwhosetheboss to learn more about Fuchsia OS.
Blloc OS on the other hand is a simpler and monochromatic OS which is focused on being not too much like a regular smartphone or too little like the light phone. What Blloc is trying to do is to be the best of both worlds. Being a smartphone but not nearly as distracting as any standard smartphones are. Learn more about the Blloc OS by watching this video by Tech Altar.
In my honest opinion, Fuchsia seem like a decent OS to look forward. KaiOS has been doing well, but doesn’t look like a competition to Android at the high end of the market. The two operating systems, rather, can sustain together, side by side. Android and iOS have much to be credited for advancing the state of technology in the smartphone world just like Mac and Windows were critical to personal computing in the era before. However, monopolies (and duopolies) usually end up stifling innovation. In that sense, we should welcome and embrace new entrants, who, if nothing else, will at least keep the incumbents on their toes, benefiting you, the consumer, most.
