When Apple launched its first personal computers, it wasn’t long before IBM countered with the “PC”. The PC was expensive, worked with command lines, and the DOS operating system was from a distant past compared to Apple’s WYSIWYG OS. Nevertheless, IBM PCs and compatibles soon outsold Apple’s Lisa or, from 1984, the MacIntosh.
Which side you chose depended not only on your requirements but also on your attitude. Which brings us to the wars of persuasion in the world of technology.
Microsoft’s Windows operating system followed, which drove millions of people to the brink of mental madness, even though it was modeled on the MacOS. However, sometime in the 1990s, when Steve Jobs returned to Apple and helped Bill Gates avert the company’s impending bankruptcy, the open “operating system wars” also ended. But the “peace” did not last long.
Android vs iOS
A second stage followed with the smartphone wars. Here, too, Apple was the first company to introduce touchscreen controls, which were relatively avant-garde. The first iPhone was controversial, but soon, touchscreen phones swept the old push-button phones off the market. NOKIA met a quick death, Blackberry had no chance and Android, the Google OS for cell phones, switched from a Blackberry-based system to touchscreen operation. The smartphone wars continue and are sometimes reminiscent of the operating system wars.
The end of analog photography
But technology wars have always existed. When the first digital cameras came out, the results were a visual disaster. For a long time, analog photography held the upper hand, but then digital cameras got better and cheaper and eventually analog photography largely disappeared. With the integration of digital photography into smartphones, even the small digital camera that many know as a snapshot camera has disappeared. Professional photography excluded.
The end of analog music
Music is another area that has gone digital. With the advent of the CD in the 1980s, the analog long-playing record was initially replaced, and eventually, even the CD itself, after digital music distribution via the Internet had completely replaced it. Nowadays, only a few people buy a CD but download the music as a stream. The physical “ownership” of music is coming to an end. Here, too, the system wars are raging. Vinyl vs. digital. Here, too, the two irreconcilable opponents argued about which system offered the best acoustic experience.
In the face of such contradictions, the system with the highest convenience factor always prevailed. When electric mobility was replaced by combustion technology at the beginning of the 20th century, it was no different. Refueling a combustion engine was simply faster, and range problems were solved – the invention of the starter motor also triggered this. Starting the early combustion engines was sometimes quite dangerous and cumbersome. Electric mobility disappeared.
Electric mobility vs. combustion engines
The latest battleground in the technology wars is once again the transportation sector. With the advent of modern electric mobility, we are reminded of the OS wars of the past. Both sides are (still) quite irreconcilable. The supporters of electric mobility see themselves as the avant-garde and protectors of the environment, while the combustion faction simply does not yet consider electric mobility to be ready for the road.
Technologies must catch on
Digital photography has finally caught on because it has become cheaper, better and more convenient than analog photography. No waiting for pictures to be developed, no need to keep buying expensive film cartridges.
Visual operating systems have prevailed over command lines because they are simply easier to use, and smartphones with touchscreens have become the norm because they have turned the telephone into a universal device. Music player, camera, movie camera, social connection to the outside world and sometimes even for making phone calls.
And electric mobility?
It has not yet arrived at its ultimate destination. It is still more expensive (to purchase) than the old combustion technology. The convenience factor is still lower due to long charging times, and batteries are only beginning to develop. We are still in the early stages, as with digital photography. The ranges (resolutions of the photos) are not yet suitable for everyone, and the cars (cameras) are still too expensive.
This will change within the next 4-5 years. The combustion engine will then become as much a thing of the past as the analog camera, the “dumb phone,” the command-line OS, the analog LP, and the CD.
Then, the technology wars in these fields should be over. In the meantime, we should all try to disarm and refrain from “triggering”. Combustion engine drivers are not public enemies, and electric autopilots are not idiots.
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