Microsoft closest to converged mobile and desktop OS says CIO

Enterprise-focussed IT publication MIS-Asia.com reported today that companies are excited about the convergence of mobile and desktop operating systems, noting that this gave them one less operating system to manage, and that Microsoft was ahead of the pack with this trend.

“From an IT leader perspective [convergence] makes it easier,” said Aaron Gette, CIO at Bay Club, a lifestyle and fitness company. “At the end of the day … we’re driving to a federated model of managed systems.”

He noted that the move was mostly beneficial to IT, particularly for businesses that already operate in a cloud-based environment, saying “The less OSes that you have to manage, especially from the same manufacturer, the better.”

Of the three major players, Microsoft is the closest to delivering a truly unified OS, according to Gette, calling Google a “non-player”

“The focus at Google has always been very splintered,” says Gette. “Whether the Android OS ever translates to desktop, I don’t know. I don’t see a lot of value in the Chrome OS, so Google to me is more of a non-player.”

Adam Codega, IT operations leader at business analytics firm Swipely said his company’s customers uses Chrome-powered devices as kiosks for credit card processing and analytics, but because the Android experience is much different than Chrome, they were the least obvious candidates for seamless convergence.

For IT, Chrome is a “non-factor at the moment,” according to Greg Meyers, corporate vice president and CIO of Motorola Solutions, because Chrome is not a fully capable OS, at least not compared to Windows 10 or Mac OS X.

Bay Club’s Gette did not expect Apple to take up the slack either, noting Apple’s strategy for convergence has little to do with IT requirements or considerations, saying “Apple [is] never going to bend to the enterprise … I feel like they’re driving towards [convergence], but they’re less concerned about whether the enterprise accepts it or not.”

Gette noted that the move to convergence appeared inevitable, saying it’s “ridiculous” for any of the leading providers to deny that it’s already happening.

Despite or even because of Microsoft’s previous faltering efforts over the last 3 years, Microsoft appears best position to address IT’s needs in this regard, with devices ranging from 2-in-1 tablet/notebook hybrids to Continuum for phones, which will deliver a desktop experience even from a hand-held device.

Read the full report at MIS-Asia here.