Lynne Kiesling
The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson parses Mary Meeker’s annual state of the Internet presentation, which includes some nifty and insightful analyses of data. Here’s my favorite:
Note that this is in percentage terms, so it doesn’t show the overall increase in the number and variety of digital devices used — the number of devices using Windows OS hasn’t necessarily declined, but the growth in the past five years of mobile devices using Apple and Android OS is truly striking in terms of its effect on the WinOS overall market share.
The decade-long (1995-2005) Windows OS dominance and its subsequent decline is interesting to those of use who study the economic history of technology. To me it indicates Schumpeter’s point about the ephemeral nature of monopoly and how innovation is the process that generates the new products and platforms that compete with the existing ones.
Perennial gale of creative destruction indeed.