Single platform is so 90s

Ah, for those days of yesteryear when things were simple. The software market was easy: build your application to run under Windows and ignore everyone else.

Life is complicated these days. There are three major PC platforms: Windows, OSX, and Linux. Targeting an application to a single platform locks you out of the others. And while Windows enjoys a large share of desktops, one should not ignore a platform simply because its market share is small. All it takes to ruin your single-platform day is for a large potential customer to ask "Does it run on X?" where X is not your platform. Telling a customer "no" is not winning strategy.

But life is even more complicated than three desktop platforms. Apple's success with iPhones and iPads, RIM's success with BlackBerry devices, and the plethora of Android phones (and soon to be tablets) has created more platforms for individuals. These new devices have not worked their way into the office (except for the BlackBerry) but they will soon be there. Androids and iPhones will be there shortly after a CEO wants to read e-mail, and declines the IT-proffered BlackBerry.

The single-platform strategy is no longer viable. To be viewed as a serious contender, providers will have to support multiple platforms. They will have to support the desktop (Windows, OSX, and Linux), the web (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, and Chrome), smartphones (iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry), and tablets (iPad and Android). Their services will have to make sense on these different platforms; stuffing your app into a browser window and claiming that it works on all platforms won't do it. Your customers won't buy it, and your competitors that do support the platforms will win the business.