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Software ecosystems have a major chicken and egg problem. If you wanted to create a new platform, your best option would be to go the other way and make an OS
by burlesona 5y ago
Software ecosystems have a major chicken and egg problem.
If you wanted to create a new platform, your best option would be to go the other way and make an OS that was “just electron” and ran all the electron apps in the world faster and better than anything else. Unsurprisingly Google has tried this with Chromebooks, but their track record on consumer product development is so poor that perhaps they just didn’t execute well and someone else could pull it off.
Another challenge is that if you did that you gain wide software compatibility but you lose any obvious differentiator. The likely way to win would be if you could make a laptop that was “just as good at running web apps as your Mac, with just as much battery life and just as nice hardware” but somehow cost under $400 or so.
I actually wouldn’t be surprised if we see that coming out of Chinese OEMs in the next decade.
- MonaroVXR 5y ago> but somehow cost under $400 or so. Screens are the most expensive things on a laptop, mobile and tablet. So you are not going to get a good screen
- burlesona 5y agoThat would be the trick. Perhaps a screen manufacturer will realize they could make better margin if they built just enough “netbook” around the screen to sell it as a computer, or perhaps screens will just get cheaper until at some point a “good enough” netbook screen is very cheap.