The word *Platform* seems to make sense across multiple paradigms. It all started during a short conversation about Facebook with a friend of mine. Facebook has been around for a couple of years now. Why sudden craze about Facebook everywhere? If you ask me, my cents on the really neat UI and ability to publish your own app on the Facebook platform. Ooops, i stepped on the word Platform. Never mind. Ya. Facebook is a platform. Not just a portal. Not another social networking website. I know, it sounds really abstract to most people talking about internet terminologies. Agreed! Let's peep into history to search for trace of something called Platform.
Can we call Microsoft Windows as a platform? How about Walmart as a platform? Mmmm.. iPhone as a platform? The big daddy Google as a platform? Stock market as a platform... i can think of an indefinite list. Let's start with something universal, well known(for good or bad) - Walmart.
Walmart is an apt example of a Platform. Walmart is a really big trading company. So, they source goods from vendors/manufacturers/OEM and sell it to customers. The concept typically applies to even the petty shops across the street. BUT, size is the x-factor, that gives more power over negotiation table with manufacturers and thereby huge profits. Customers accustomed to a platform normally find it difficult to accept a new one so easily.
Back to the context of Computers, Microsoft and Facebook are two companies of interest to me. Microsoft created the Windows platform more than a decade ago for PCs. Since then, Microsoft has successfully replicated the platform from Servers to Compact devices. Logically, an application that runs on either of them would run on others as well. And, most importantly, consistent user experience across devices allowed users to seamlessly use these devices without having to go through repeated learning cycles. What did Microsoft get as a result? The power to replicate the platform across any imaginable hardware.
There are couple of prominent companies defining or re-defining the 'platform' on web. I will be writing topics focussed on those, instead of rat-holing :)
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