The World Of Mobile Operating Systems

By Author: Kelly Burby
Total Articles: 349
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Microsoft Windows, for example, has been the all time dominating OS for desktop PCs. But, the story for mobile OS is rather different. We live in the world of too many mobile operating systems. Here, users have more choices than one; however, not all mobile operating systems are equally popular. A few have monopoly in most markets while others are at death stage.

Still, many newer are being developed and there is no guarantee that they will be able to do better. So mobile operating systems can loosely be sorted into following three categories:

The popular mobile operating systems - Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone
Popular are mostly the best! These are those operating systems which run maximum numbers of mobile devices. Android is world’s most popular mobile platform. It is powering more than 60% smart phones and tablets. Open Handset Alliance together with Google developed Android and offered it as an open source OS in 2008. Android is flexible. It can be customized according to requirements. Android supports the customized mobile application development too. It is based on Linux Kernel and it ...
... can power devices like smartphone, tablets, e-readers, Netbooks, Smartwatch, etc.

Another popular mobile operating system is iOS. Apple introduced it in 2007 after the release of the first iPhone and iPod Touch. It is a close source OS that means only Apple can use it. The company uses it in a wide range of devices, like mobile phones, tablets PCs, and portable music players. The best features include ease of use, slickness, and ability to get synchronized with other Apple devices.

BlackBerry has also been a popular operating system, but nowadays it has lost its charm. It is also a closed source operating system like iOS and runs only on BlackBerry devices. RIM (Research in Motion) developed BlackBerry and geared it towards business users. Latest BlackBerry platform has started to offer full multimedia support.

Microsoft has also launched its completely refreshed series of operating systems known as Windows Phone. It is the replacement of Windows Mobile OS that was released in 2000. Windows Phone incorporates Microsoft’s new Metro design interface. But, it could not attract many users.

The struggling mobile operating systems – Bada and Symbian
Bada is the mobile operating system developed by Samsung; however, it doesn’t have a market share more than 3%. Bada is a struggling OS due to many reasons, e.g. it does not do multitasking like the leading operating system Android. It does multitasking only with its own apps. Samsung’s most successful smartphone like Galaxy S3 does not also run on Bada; instead, it uses customized Android OS.

Another struggling mobile platform is Symbian. Many people consider that Symbian is synonymous with Nokia, but other mobile manufacturers like Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu, and Samsung also use this OS. Originally, Symbian was used by mobile manufacturers for its multiple user interfaces. Now, the market share of Symbian is getting a decline due to rising popularity of Android and iOS.

The upcoming mobile operating systems - Firebox, Facebook and Amazon
Now we come to some upcoming mobiles or mobile operating systems. The much hyped upcoming mobile OS is Mozilla Firefox. It is a web based operating system, but you would hardly assume it as a web browser. Many believe that Mozilla’s mobile platform can be a cheaper alternative to Android, but nothing can be said unless we touch and feel it in our hands.

There are rumors that Amazon, after the success of Kindle Fire Tablet, is building its own smartphones. Reports suggest that the phone is currently in development phase with the manufacturing partner Foxconn International (Apple also got the first iPhone manufactured from Foxconn). Should we guess that Amazon will launch its own smartphone with highly customized Android? It may be, or maybe not.

In the earlier week of May, New York Times reported that Facebook is attempting to build a device like iPhone. It has hired hardware and software engineers who worked on the development project of iPhone and iPad. So, if Facebook builds a smartphone like iPhone, it needs to build its own mobile platform and we would have one more Mobile operating system.

These are just a few names. Ex Nokia employees are also planning to launch smartphones this year with MeeGo, Linux based open source operating system. Mobile smartphones and operating systems have just started playing with the minds of their consumers. The future will tell whether new operating systems will kick the old ones out or will BlackBerry strike back. The game has just started results are yet to be announced.

for more information visit android applications
and iphone developers