Apple has not traditionally done that well outside of hardware and operating systems.

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Operating systems designed to run on hardware from multiple manufacturers and Java virtual machines promising portability across hardware and operating systems were part of the swing toward platform independence.

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The reorganization recognizes that phones and tablets share common operating systems and hardware that notebooks often do not.

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Our Gobi fifth generation reference platform helps ensure that OEMs can develop products across their choice of operating systems and hardware platforms to meet the growing demand for mobile connectivity.

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It just launched its new PC and mobile operating systems and for the first time started selling its own computer hardware the Surface Windows RT tablet.

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All four of the new systems include full hardware redundancy, redundant storage and network connections and allow for live operating system upgrades, Sun said.

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Ballmer talked of the revolutionary implications of a world, perhaps five years away, where all media is delivered via Internet protocol, and said Microsoft would be everywhere--games, search, operating systems, hardware--to capture that.

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Not only is the operating system no longer managing the hardware, thanks to the work of VMware and Citrix, but as applications continue move to the Web operating systems are also losing relevance on the software side to the browser.

FORBES: The Disposable Operating System