When it launched on Kickstarter last week, Console OS was little more than an idea: an unusual and largely unofficial approach to dual-booting Android on a Windows laptop or tablet. Today, the project looks well on its way to becoming real, with nearly 2,500 paid-up backers already onboard.
I first wrote about Console OS as soon as the crowdfunding page went live. Despite a fair amount of skepticism, which I’ll get to in a moment, I found the concept appealing. I depend on Windows 8 for certain things (like writing this article), but my mobile existence is pretty much entrenched in the world of Android, and it’d be nice if that world was just a 10-second reboot away. Equally, I’m drawn to the idea of running multiple windowed Android apps side-by-side at high speed on the larger screen of an Intel INTC -0.07%-powered PC, and that’s something else Console OS promises to facilitate.
Clearly, these are things a lot of people want. Whenever I’ve covered hybrid mobile / desktop software ideas before, from the likes of Ubuntu, the response has been huge — just like it has been with Console OS. I can only attribute this to a widespread feeling that Microsoft MSFT -0.07% has been too slow in perfecting Windows for a mobile setting, while Google GOOGL +1.89% has so far failed to make Android compelling on larger and more powerful types of computer (energies it directs to Chrome OS instead).
On the other hand, speaking of Ubuntu, that was a partly crowdfunded project that failed to get off the ground. A salutory reminder that all of this has been tried before, by companies with more clout. So, briefly, it’s worth addressing the whole notion of dual-OS devices, and why none of them have yet succeeded. The latter question is easier to answer: Commercial interests have likely played a major role in preventing Android and Windows from coming together on a single device. Intel promoted the idea back at CES, at the same time as ASUS announced a dual-OS hybrid PC, but then — before customers actually had a chance to express any interest — Microsoft reportedly came along and crushed it. Quite sensibly, perhaps, it couldn’t see any commercial benefit in allowing Android to invade its user base from the inside out.
As things stand, the few other Android-for-Windows tools on the market are held back by the fact that they (mostly) target developers rather than mainstream consumers; they’re tricky to run and they tend to emulate or virtualize Android instead of running it natively, which makes it hard to run games or other intensive tasks at full speed. Console OS aims to fix all these issues, with or without Microsoft’s blessing, and with just a little bit help from Intel (which has given the startup access to essential hardware drivers.)
The more fundamental “why?” is a much trickier question to answer. Why do people think it’s possible to improve upon two finely-tuned operating systems, each of which has consumed millions of dollars and years of development time, simply by supporting a $50,000 Kickstarter project? And aren’t solid, mainstream interfaces all about unity of purpose and unity of design, rather forcing things to work together in ways that were never intended?
These are doubts that Console OS must try to dispel when it’s ready for market in December of this year. I’ve put them directly to Chris Price, who heads up the project, and he offered me a long-term vision as a counterpoint, effectively saying that Google has already done all the hard work for him:
“We absolutely believe that Console OS can scale Android up to be a primary OS in the PC marketplace… With Android’s popularity, scaling the platform up to handle productivity systems like the PC is really the next step for Android. That’s what Console OS is all about.”
Let’s be clear, then: The ultimate goal of Console OS is not to allow Android and Windows to co-exist. That’s just the proximate intention, and the immediate selling point for the Kickstarter campaign.
Rather, the ambition is to speed up Android’s conquest of bigger and more powerful computing devices, at the expense of Mac OS, Windows and other closed-source operating systems. Price explicitly says this in a recent editorial, explaining that he was driven to create Console OS out of a desire to escape the walled gardens of Apple AAPL +0.11% and others:
“To beat the walled gardens, you have to have an operating system that people like. Thankfully, Android is the most popular OS in the world today.”
If Console OS fails, it won’t be due to a lack of interest or support. It’ll either be because it sold itself too cheaply on Kickstarter, recruiting thousands of backers at $10 a pop while still failing to meet its $50,000 target. Or it’ll be because it put its long-term philosophy ahead of the straight-forward functionality that it has promised. I have doubts on both fronts, but I sincerely hope to be proved wrong, not least because my own $10 is now in that pot.
Source: Forbes
No comments :
Post a Comment