Gartner’s David Cearley started his press conference at this week’s Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in São Paulo with the phrase: “The days of Windows domination are pretty much over.”
The consulting firm noted that since last year the installed base of mobile PCs and smartphones has exceeded that of desktop PCs; and that media tablets sales are expected to jump from 18 million sold in 2010 to 918 million by 2016 – or one sold for every eight people on earth.
The scenario projected by Gartner shows that by 2014, the installed base of devices based on lightweight mobile operating systems – such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s Windows 8 – will exceed the total installed base of all PC-based systems. “As mobile’s importance increase, the Microsoft’s dominance decreases,” Cearley said.
As a consequence, IT departments will have to provide support and build multiplatform systems. “On the Microsoft side, companies will have to respond quickly … a dynamic change,” pointed Cearley.
Gartner notes that in the mobile-centric applications and interfaces role, Apple, Microsoft and Google will battle for leadership. Usability, appearance and behavior might be the key points to mobile apps, and the experience must flow to where customers are and what they are doing. To fulfill this role, Gartner suggests that there’s a need for new user interface skills; that the multichannel is inevitable; and that HTML5 helps, but is “no panacea.”
During the opening lecture, the keynote speaker Peter Sondergaard, SVP at Gartner and global head of research, classified Microsoft, HP, IBM, Oracle, SAP and Cisco as strategic IT vendors for CIOs. But Gartner did not forget to mention Apple and Google, which the firm classified as disruptive IT vendors.
“CIOs must evaluate how well these companies embrace cloud, social and mobile. What are their strategies,” explained Sondergaard.
Cloud, social, mobility and an explosion in information are cited by Gartner as the new nexus that are creating a necessity to look different at business models. The trends identified will drive companies to reinvent themselves and become more focused on post-modern business, creative destruction and simplicity.
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