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VIDEOMicrosoft, Google Do Hard Battle Over Software
By
Scott Reeves Apr 02, 2009 1:15 pm
So the question is: Is Android a real threat to Windows?
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Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and other PC manufacturers are testing Google’s Android operating system for use in netbooks, or inexpensive laptop computers that now lead PC sales growth, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The key: Android is free.
Loading Microsoft Windows into a laptop now costs about $15 per computer, further eroding narrow margins in a product that typically sells for less than $500.
But Android isn’t a guaranteed winner because it doesn’t run many popular PC programs. Users are familiar with Microsoft and some returned laptops loaded with Linux because it didn’t always connect with printers. Android is based on Linux and might face similar problems.
Hewlett-Packard hasn’t decided to use Google’s software in future netbooks. It would be a difficult transition because Microsoft now runs about 90% of small computers. Microsoft will fight back hard because Windows generated about 60% of the company’s operating profit in the last fiscal year.
Nevertheless, Dell (DELL) is experimenting with Android for new devices it may introduce this year, such as a cellphone and pocket-sized computers dubbed “mobile Internet devices.”
Intel’s (INTC) Atom chip is now built into most small computers, but Android is designed to run on microprocessor designs licensed by ARM Holdings (ARHM). ARM and its licensees make chips used in cellphones.
It’s clear that computers and smartphones are converging, but it’s not certain that Android will lead the charge to smaller, cheaper and more functional netbooks.
For many users, a netbook is a second computer and here’s betting most value ease-of-use over the whizzes and whirrs of a golly-gee-wow operating system like Android - even if it means paying a little more up front.
No one, least of all a tekkie, argues that Windows is great or even decent for small computers. But it’s familiar. Most users simply want to turn the computer on and get to work. Dinking around with extras -- anything that’s not loaded into the computer when purchased -- is more trouble than it’s worth for many.
Cnet -- written for aspiring geeks by those steeped in geekdom -- calls Android’s phone software “very user friendly” and notes that a netbook running Google’s software could easily be supplemented with a “built-in app store.”
Maybe. But wouldn’t that simply shift the cost of needed software from the initial purchase price to a later date ?
Android may be wonderful - even better than chocolate and sex. But Microsoft, despite its chronic clunkiness, has a major advantage: Familiarity.
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