Sometimes it feels like you have to love one or the other, doesn't it? Even if you wouldn't call yourself a "fanboy," or tell anyone you like one mobile operating system more than any other, it can sometimes feel like it doesn't even matter. All of the platforms out there are so different in key areas, especially when it comes to the parts where consumers spend money, that liking more than one is just a formality. After all, you're probably going to use the platform you're more invested in than the one you're not.
It is a good thing to be a fan of more than one platform, though. For one, it doesn't limit your options. No matter how much of a fan we are of a particular piece of software, that doesn't always mean we're going to like the hardware options that are bestowed upon us from the manufacturers delivering the goods. If we don't like the device, then using the software isn't fun at all. That's why having choice is great.
The only problem with liking more than one platform is the temptation to get more than one phone, right? I know how that goes, too. I used to carry around two phones, with the excuse that one was for "work," while the other was my personal line. I never really had much use for one or the other, though. Sometimes my personal phone was better than my work device, and sometimes it was the other way around. Whichever was better was the number I gave out to people at the time, or used to talk to folks in general.
Even if I only used one, I still carried around both.
Sometimes, but very rarely, they were running the same OS. These days, it wouldn't be hard to find someone who's carrying around two phones running Android. Or maybe even Windows Phone. However, I know there are people out there who carry around two phones with completely different mobile operating systems, whether it be iOS and Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10, or any number of other combinations.
I would be willing to bet that for some of those folks in that particular situation, it isn't so much switching between the software, or its features and design aesthetic, that raises the frustration level. I'd imagine it's the change in hardware. Maybe it's the difference in screen size, or weight, or maybe even the camera.
This is probably where the fascination with a device that dual-boots platforms comes from. We've heard about it quite a bit, especially ever since Google's mobile OS Android really started to take off. A device that could dual-boot different platforms, and that way bring the best of two world together on one device. But, more than that, at its most basic level, is the fact that you wouldn't have to actively switch devices.
I can see where the idea might be a good one, especially for those who love two different platforms, but for the life of me I can't gain any interest in it. Geeksphone just announced that their Revolution, a device with a "powerful heart," will be able to dual-boot Android and Firefox OS, and beyond the excitement that we've got a new device headed down the pipe, I'm just not that interested in the dual-boot portion of the handset.
I know I made a case for why someone might like to have one device that runs two different platforms, but when it comes to me, I know I just wouldn't use it. I wouldn't make use of the capability at all. I would just get too comfortable using one platform over the other, or find one not as useful as the other, and just never use the second (or first, depending on the situation) platform.
That's just me, though. I'm curious about you. I want to know if you'd be interested in a high-end, or even mid-range device that could dual-boot mobile operating systems at will. And if so, which two platforms would you like to use on one device, and why? Let me know!