Mobile Operating Systems
Source : Wikipedia
A Mobile operating system, also known as a Mobile OS, a Mobile platform, or a Handheld operating system, is the operating system that controls a mobile—similar in principle to an operating system such as Linux or Windows that controls a desktop computer. However, they are currently somewhat simpler, and deal more with the wireless versions of broadband and local connectivity, mobile multimedia formats, and different input methods.
Contents
1 History
2 Issues and challenges
3 Market description
4 Operating systems
History
The increasing importance of mobile devices has triggered hectic competition among technology giants, like Microsoft, Apple, and Nokia in a bid to capture the bigger market share pre-emptively. However, relatively young tech firms like Symbian seem to be in the lead pack of the market, particularly in smart phones and PDA phones. Palm, Research In Motion and Ericsson also significant firms in the mobile platform sector. In November 2007, Google formed a Linux-based open source alliance to make inroads into this mobile platform market, raising consumer awareness of the growing mobile platform frenzy.
Issues and Challenges
Open standards are gaining more ground across the spectrum of industries related, whereas proprietary mobile platforms, like Windows Mobile, are expanding their market share. Sir Tim Berners-Lee recently re-emphasized his advocacy for open mobile standards in his keynote speech at the first annual meeting of Mobile Internet World held in Boston in November 2007.He warned against a possibility that the Internet connections worldwide may turn into “walled gardens.” Google announced its Linux-based open source mobile platform, Android, along with the formation of the 34-member Open Handset Alliance.
Nonetheless, mobile web does not necessarily mean a horizontal and spatial shift from PC-based web, but a severe structural change to identify the missing links, among other things, between the stationary web at home or in the office and mobile web on the go.
Top agenda items may include
1. Continued connectivity between home, cars and Base Stations like WiFi Hot Spots and Femtocell
2. Interoperability of equipment and applications, and adaptability to the ever-shifting mobile multimedia ecosystem
3. Behavioral tracking utilizing GPS data versus privacy concern
4. Real-time links between the wireless world and physical world
5. Financial transactions, including smartcards, SMS and Multimedia Messaging Service.
Market description
Mobile platforms are in the nascent stage, and any projection regarding the market growth is hard to make at the present time. It is noteworthy that Intel is taking the initiative to focus on portable devices other than mobile phones. They are Mobile Internet Devices (MID) and Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC). Meantime, Palm abandoned its plan to develop Foleo, which was to be a companion device for a smartphone.
Operating Systems
Operating systems that can be found on smartphones include Symbian OS, iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Linux, Palm WebOS and Android. Android and WebOS are in turn built on top of Linux, and the iPhone OS is derived from the BSD and NeXTSTEP operating systems, which all are related to Unix.
Q2 2009 Marketshare data from Canalys.
Note: Data does not include Palm WebOS, which was introduced in June, 2009.
The most common operating systems (OS) are:
Symbian OS from Symbian Ltd.
Symbian has the largest share in most markets worldwide, but lags behind other companies in the relatively small but highly visible North American market. This matches the success of its largest shareholder and customer, Nokia, in all markets except Japan. Nokia itself enjoys 52.9% of the smartphone market. In Japan Symbian is strong due to a relationship with NTT DoCoMo, with only one of the 44 Symbian handsets released in Japan coming from Nokia. It is used by many major handset manufacturers, including BenQ, LG, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. Various implementations of user interfaces on top of Symbian (most notable being UIQ and Nokia’s own S60) are incompatible, which along with the requirement that applications running on mobile phones be signed] is hindering the potential for a truly widely accepted mobile application platform. It has received some adverse press attention due to virus threats (namely trojan horses).
RIM BlackBerry operating
This OS is focused on easy operation and was originally designed for business. Recently it has seen a surge in third-party applications and has been improved to offer full multimedia support.
iPhone OS from Apple Inc.
The iPhone uses an operating system called iPhone OS, which is derived from Mac OSX. Third party applications were not officially supported until the release of iPhone OS 2.0 on July 11th 2008. Before this, “jailbreaking” allowed third party applications to be installed, and this method is still available.
Windows Mobile from Microsoft
The Windows CE operating system and Windows Mobile middleware are widely spread in Asia. The two improved variants of this operating system, Windows Mobile 6 Professional Windows Mobile 6 Standard, were unveiled in February 2007. Windows Mobile benefits from the low barrier to entry for third-party developers to write new applications for the platform. It has been criticized for having a user interface which is not optimized for touch input by fingers; instead, it is more usable with a stylus. However, unlike iPhone OS, it does support both touch screen and physical keyboard configurations.
Android from Google Inc.
Android was developed by Google Inc.. Its share of the smartphone market is still small because of its recent release date. Android is an Open Source, Linux-derived platform backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, and eBay, to name a few), that form the Open Handset Alliance. This OS, though very new, already has a cult following among programmers eager to develop apps for its flexible, Open Source, back end. Android promises to give developers access to every aspect of the phone’s operation. This lends many to foresee the promise of further growth for the Android platform.
Linux operating system
Linux is strongest in China where it is used by Motorola, and in Japan, used by DoCoMo. Rather than being a platform in its own right, Linux is used as a basis for a number of different platforms developed by several vendors, including Android, Limo, Maemo, Openmoko and QT Extended, which are mostly incompatible. PlamSource (now Access) is moving towards an interface running on Linux. Another platform based on Linux is being developed by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone.
Plam webOS from Palm Inc. and Palm OS/ Garnet OS from Access Co.
Palm webOS is Palm’s next generation operating system. PalmSource traditionally used its own platform developed by Palm Inc. Access linux Platform (ALP) is an improvement that was planned to be launched in the first half of 2007. It will use technical specifications from the Linux Phone Standards Forum. The Access Linux Platform will include an emulation layer to support applications developed for Palm-based devices.
MXI
MXI is a universal mobile operating system that allows existing full-fledged desktop and mobile applications written for Windows, Linux, Java, Palm be enabled immediately on mobile devices without any redevelopment. MXI allows for interoperability between various platforms, networks, software and hardware components.
