The mobile operating systems have been derived from their desktop counterparts. That’s the reason the email application on the smartphones look very much like the desktop version.
But, as the mobile operating systems maturing, they are in turn influencing the appearance of their desktop peers.
Take the Mac App Store for example, in which the apps run full screen and it supports multi touch gestures (with the help of Magic trackpad) too — these two properties essentially originated in smartphones and now have made their ways to Mac computers.
The other companies also intend these two worlds to merge eventually.
The webOS operating system of Hewlett Packard was designed for mobile use, but HP is now trying to bring it for desktops and notebooks. And then there always is our favourite Windows 8 smartphone operating system, which is now proposed for the tablets as well.
Very clearly, the mobile operating systems are influencing the desktop operating systems, and the dividing line between the two is increasingly getting finer by the day.
The cloud technology, which enables the user to access their data from multiple sources like smartphones and computers, also partly contributed to the cause.
The cloud technology essentially forced the manufacturers to bring a harmony between the functions of the handsets and PCs.
Even the Google co-founder, Sergey Brin has once opined that the two operating systems (of PCs and smartphones) will eventually converge. Google has started a friendly in house competition to develop two open sourced operating systems so the company has the option of choosing the best of both worlds.
Motorola’s Atrix is another interesting case, which comes equipped with a lapdoc that works like a laptop when the phone is placed in the dock. Users cannot install web based apps in the Atrix but can run those through the Mozilla Firefox browser.