Competition in the software world

[jim]

Often when talking about the IT world, competition is praised. If we didn't have AMD, Intel processors wouldn't be as good, and every time another hard drive manufacturer is swallowed up we wonder whether they'll keep pushing each other to improve.

Question is, has it benefited the software world? There's no doubt that Apple have won a lot of plaudits for their operating systems over the years, but it could be said that it's them who have through the iPhone and iPad led to the touchscreen, locked down ARM installation, and "app store" aspects of Windows 8 - which many are unhappy about. On the flipside, we might still be trying to use Windows Mobile 6.5.3 or whatever they finished on, rather than the quite lovely Android.

And if not Apple, then does the wider Unix family really stretch Microsoft in any way when it comes to new operating systems?

[kalniel]

Back in the DOS days competition really drove on OS development, certainly. Likewise there were heavy hitters in word processing and other office software that drove MS Office to improve rapidly.

There's been a bit of a lull in competition for PC desktop OS, which things like piracy have only made worse because you stifle competition if you ignore their cheaper offerings in favour of a bootleg copy of the mainstream software. But I think with the move to portable devices and merging of the phone/tablet/PC experience the competition is suddenly wide open again as MS is going to have to compete with Android and the likes.