One of the things that Steve Jobs highlighted at the most recent Apple event was the dominance of the iOS app market, and the ability of users to access content better through iOS than any other mobile platform. Argue the Apple premise if you like, but it is undeniable that content and app availability drive platform success. I was reminded of this today when I received an email from the support department for the Slacker music service. Last night I tried to update my credit card information on the site, and an error message popped up. According to Slacker support, I have to access my account information from IE or Firefox on a PC. Chrome is not supported.
I can’t come up with another example of a time I tried to access something using Chrome only to find it unavailable, so I’m not suggesting that Chrome won’t continue to succeed among desktop browsers. However, it is disheartening to find that browser compatibility is still a concern even with a popular, well-established consumer site. And that got me thinking further. Forget desktop browsers. What about all those tablet operating systems and mobile browsers hitting the market? How are companies going to keep up with such a diversified landscape?
It was bad enough when we were talking Mac vs. PC. Or more recently, Apple vs. Android. But now we’ve got iOS versus Gingerbread versus Honeycomb versus WebOS versus Win 7, and on, and on. The fragmentation discussion has been going on for months, but the situation’s on the verge of getting so bad it almost makes me nostalgic for the old “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC,” ads. It also gives me serious pause in committing to any cloud service, knowing that if I change my mobile platform, I could lose access, or at least partial functionality in the future. For example, should I pay the annual Slacker subscription fee knowing that I haven’t decided what tablet to buy yet? Tablet competition is good, but I could do without the compatibility issues that are sure to be a bigger problem soon.
