The Commodification of the Client Operating System

Wikipedia:

Commodification occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, often by the diffusion of the intellectual capital necessary to acquire or produce it efficiently. As such, goods that formerly carried premium margins for market participants have become commodities...

Windows 8: $14.99 to $39.99 
Mountain Lion: $19.99
iOS: Free
Android: Free
Linux: Free
Chrome OS: Free

There are 1,000,000 Android devices activated EVERY DAY. A million new computers coming online each day. The Android operating system is free. Later this year Apple will release iOS 6 - the operating system will be distributed for free. Today Apple released Mountain Lion for $19.99. The full version of Windows 7 Ultimate at Microsoft.com is $319.99. - roughly the same price as Windows 2000 Professional. I would assume there are not a lot of people paying over $300 for a desktop operating system these days. Upgrading to Windows 8? $39.99. The personal computer - now defined by the smartphone and traditional laptop/desktop PC - operating system is quickly becoming a commodity. 

The stated goal of the Microsoft Windows team was "a computer on every desktop and in every home." Of course, this implied the Windows operating system would be running on every desktop and in every home. Obviously the Windows team was wildly successful, peaking at 90% marketshare. This incredible dominance created the world's most valuable software company. 

Today a majority of Interent connected devices do not run Windows. We've gone beyond "a computer on every desktop" to a computer in every purse and pocket. The most heavily used "app" on these devices? The browser. Technophiles have their operating system preference. But today the operating system really doesn't matter, as long as it can serve up the ultimate killer app, the browser. 

Update: 10/22/2013 

This was taken one step further today, OS X Maverick's will be distributed for free.