subject: FORECASTING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR 2010: A WAR OF THE BIGGIES [print this page] FORECASTING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR 2010: A WAR OF THE BIGGIES
In the big fight, Google is likely to pull the tug-of-war rope from Microsoft to its side. Any guesses who takes the credit ? Yes, it's Chrome! Looking at the fast-pace development of Google, Chrome can be foreseen as a fully cross-platform browser by the year end, at par with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux ports. The rise in popularity is imminent with the recent addition of extension support. To dig out Microsoft's base and beat Internet Explorer, though, is still far a reach!
No resting for Microsoft either! Announcement of SharePoint 2010 as the spiritual successor to Lotus Notes/Domino for rapid business application development has already created a buzz a serious bid though as only this time it's all based on Web technologies. Even if there is no vendor lock-in, many small businesses are going to find it beneficial and employ it.
And the losers!
It would be difficult for Mozilla to beat Chrome with its Firefox and give Google a run for its money if its small but vocal pool of users is not served up to the expectations and the complaint graph takes a sharp rise. It has to push itself really hard before the debate moves from the message boards on to the blogsor else it will soon be looked down upon by the users who are mesmerized with its dramatic growth rate so far.
In haze
If not the full version of Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft will at least manage to come out with its Technology Preview release before the year ends. The big player successfully uses this old trick of letting the cat out of the bag for its projects that are still in pipeline and baffling the competitors, as it did with Windows Vista. The long-back-introduced Gazelle project, I expect, will be brought back to light.
Google may be a winner as far as the web platform is concerned; however, the mobile platform is still not its forte. Google's Android phones are still far from bringing down the popularity of iPhones, though it promises to provide the customers newer models in 2010 in order to gain a wider customer base.
Looking at this, Apple surely has a reason to plan a preemptive strike and this may call for dropping its exclusive arrangement with AT&T and expand iPhones' carrier network. Preferring Android over iPhone seems, however , to take time for even the die-hard Verizon customers. Let's see if Android 2.1 (or later) does this job!
