Apple is no longer a computer manufacturer, Google is no longer a search engine, and Amazon is no longer just an online shopping mall. What these companies have in common is that they conquer other areas of life from their respective starting points. The effects are already foreseeable. In addition to the search engine, Google offers e-mail, a mobile phone operating system and mobile phones, a voice-operated assistant, a computer operating system, a browser, self-driving cars, a photo service and other services in the cloud, music, movies, home surveillance systems (Nest), YouTube and much more. Apple offers mobile phones, computers, iPads, software, a music service, a SmartWatch, headphones, a voice-operated assistant, a TV service and a cloud solution, and much more. Among other products, Amazon offers food delivery, its own products, a voice-operated assistant, video conferencing hardware, a music service, a film service and is also the largest cloud provider. And much more. At first glance, the services may each be a colorful potpourri, but if you take a closer look, the three big digital heavyweights (Facebook excluded from the GAFA acronym) are tinkering with life operating systems. Our lives will increasingly be supported by digital systems, and Apple, Amazon and Google are working to make as much of these systems available as possible. A system that links digital life coherently and coherently could be called a life operating system. This is especially evident when you want to switch from one system to another or have to exchange data with another system. This is already difficult in some cases. Android phone and MacBook? It’s no fun. Switching from an Android to an Apple phone? No problem at first, there is an assistant. But the calendar? And the contacts? How do I get the photos into Apple’s elegant Photos app? It is only really efficient when all digital activities are designed with Apple products. Photos sync across multiple devices, as do files, no matter how much storage space you have on each device. At Google, the assistant learns. The more Google products are used, the better suggestions are generated. Traffic jam on the way to work? No problem, the Android phone warns its user based on historical data and the current traffic situation. Here, too, synchronization is carried out across several devices. Amazon still seems to be lagging behind. But the strategy of selling hardware at a discount, as in the case of tablets, helps to bind customers to the Amazon universe. And so a new class society could soon arise, which could result from the use of the respective life operating system:
- Those who can afford it use the Apple system. It’s expensive, but time-saving and chic.
- The Google system will be somewhat cheaper, even if Google tries its hand at the upper price segments with the Pixel devices. It is the system for the masses.
- The cheapest will be an Amazon system. It doesn’t offer the fastest hardware, but everything you need is included.
- Those who want to remain independent work with Linux computers and free software. The rebels. They pay primarily with lifetime, but also retain control over their data.