KIRT MCMASTER has the right stuff to be a successful software boss. He talks a mile a minute with a booming voice. And he projects inevitability: “We’re creating something everybody wants.” But communication skills are not the only reason why his firm may succeed where others, including Amazon and Samsung, have failed: establishing a third mobile-computing platform to compete with Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, which have market shares of 78% and 18% respectively.
Most previous efforts to launch a new mobile platform were controlled by a single company or a consortium, so they were either supported by few others or were hampered by complex decision-making. What is more, new operating systems require makers of apps to rewrite their programs—a costly undertaking with an uncertain outcome. Cyanogen has avoided these pitfalls, says William Stofega of IDC, a market-research firm. It was born in 2009 as an open-source project. The platform is fully compatible with Android but is also more customisable and boasts more features, such as better privacy settings. Although installing it is tricky and often voids the device’s warranty, around 50m smartphone owners worldwide have done so.
Reviewed by pop
on
9:44 AM
Rating:
No comments: