The Future is Software.

Do a younger, more tech-savvy generation care more for personalizing their devices and the data they can access on them rather than the expensive branded hardware?

I was recently teaching some third year undergraduates and I noticed that one of them was working with an Android tablet which turned out to be a Google Nexus 7. It looked rather neat as he showed me all the various widgets available on his home screen, email and chat feeds. One comment he made struck me – ‘I’ve had enough with iOS’ he said. Him and his friends too. What he meant was that they were all a bit underwhelmed and actually frustrated by the lack of adaptability in the now rather basic iOS interface. Android was ‘the way to go’.

Then a few other things made me think. Firstly, there was the launch of the new iPads along with the departure from Apple of John Forstall, in charge of iOS as described by Adam Lashinsky at CNN Money. Then there was this article in the FT by the editor in chief of the MIT Technology review who was bold enough to say – “Microsoft knows it is slowly dying but declines to accept its fate. Apple, flush with cash, does not yet have to admit that with the death of its tutelary genius, it has lost its way.” Then there was the fact that Apple missed its targets for the second time.

The new iPad is basically the same as the old one, only quicker and different cameras, and the iPad mini is a smaller version. Not much new there. Whether it's true or not, Forstall was held responsible the things that went wrong for Apple recently – Siri and Apple Maps. Both were examples of software development that really weren’t in line with the usual Apple perfectionist ethos.

Now there are daily stories predicting the rise of this mobile player and demise of the other, be it Google, Blackberry, Microsoft or anyone else. What I am wondering here is if there is a larger trend emerging out of a generational shift that might explain Android’s increasing popularity. I wonder if the lack of attention to, and reluctance to change, the operating software of these devices by Apple isn’t flying in the face of what the younger, soon to be consumers, generation wants. All of a sudden, the walled garden approach their well-off parents have favoured with Apple doesn’t look that appealing anymore. The more flexible, adaptable Android appeals to them as does the commitment to software that solves the bigger problems that works and which has a genuine impact on lifestyles. Is the sleek hardware based approach beginning to look like the kind of thing well-off parents own rather than the kids? That would put it perilously close to being uncool.

Amazon and Google look like they are taking a long view on hardware becoming cheaper, maybe even free and it’s all about the software and crucially the data available to them and how they can access it, for example, Maps. It seems a younger generation might agree with them.