It seems that Apple, Microsoft, and Google are shying away from rigid, structured operating systems as the future of their respective companies. Apple and Microsoft have essentially spelled out that their next version of their OS (Snow Leopard and 7) would be the last traditional OS they would offer. Both companies seem to be choosing a cloud OS, which would reduce the companies’ material overhead cost and allow for a direct connection between the company and the user’s computer. Cloud computing seems to be the starting point for the future of computer-based interactions. The strength of the App Store on iTunes and the app stores for Google’s Android phone would represent a guidepost for those companies to follow. Those companies can now direct their energies to transitioning between the mobile platform and the laptop platform, which would lead to merger between the infrastructure created from the lessons learned on the mobile/laptop platform and the superstructure that is the traditional OS of the corporation (or in the case of Google, their search engine / browser / mobile platform convergence). This construction can lead to the concept of sky computing, or connecting several of the clouds of information through a “load-bearing” distribution system. Sky computing would reduce the load present on a server farm and would allow from a simpler method for backing up data.
