A platform, to computer people, is the software code on which
third-party applications function. There are scores of big
platforms out there--something like three dozen in the
international mobile-phone business alone. But a truly successful
one can extend far beyond its immediate group of users and
effectively create and control an enormous market. In the computer
industry, IBM dominated the first commercial platform with its
expensive mainframes and operating systems, aimed at corporate
users. Seemingly overnight, IBM was supplanted by Microsoft and its
Windows operating system as the PC revolution took hold. Windows,
in turn, is now losing its power as the Webâ€"owned by
no one, accessible to all--becomes the dominant platform. (Yes, the
Web is nothing more than a big layer of code; all those websites we
visit are merely applications that sit atop it.)
"Every major player in Techland wants to create the next great
platform, of course..."
