Mobile Operating Systems
Content
Computer Applications
Mobile Operating Systems (MOS)
Prof: Muhammad Moazam Ali
Group Name: Twinkle 2
By: Hassam Rasheed (Leader) Daniyal Ali Junaid Siddique Umair Tariq BAT11327 BAT11362 BAT11318 BAT11315
Mobile Operating System
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 device or information appliance—similar in principle to an operating system such as Windows, Mac OS, or Linux that controls a desktop computer or laptop. 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. Typical examples of devices running a mobile operating system are Smartphone, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers and information appliances, or what are sometimes referred to as smart devices, which may also include embedded systems, or other mobile devices and wireless devices. Today's mobile devices are multi-functional devices capable of hosting a broad range of applications for both business and consumer use. PDAs and the ever-growing category of smart phones allow people to access the Internet for e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging and Web browsing, as well as work documents, contact lists and more. Mobile devices are often seen as an extension to your own PC. Work done on the road or away from the office can be synchronized with your PC to reflect changes and new information.
History
The increasing importance of mobile devices has triggered intense competition among technology giants, like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Nokia in a bid to capture the bigger market share pre-emptively. Palm, Research in Motion and Ericsson are 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.
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 UltraMobile PC (UMPC). Meantime, Palm abandoned its plan to develop Foleo, which was to be a companion device for a Smartphone.
Mobile navigation
Canalys has estimated that in 2009 the installed base of Smartphone with integrated GPS was 163 million units worldwide, of which Nokia accounted for more than half (51%) having shipped
cumulatively 83 million GPS devices. On January 22, 2010, Nokia released a free version of Ovi Maps which is expected to double user amount.
Smartphone operating systems
Smartphone operating systems
Linuxbased
Access Linux · Android · DSLinux · Familiar · iPod Linux · LiMo · MeeGo (Moblin · Maemo · Qt Extended) · Mobilinux · Openmoko Linux · OPhone · SHR · Qt Extended Improved · Ubuntu Mobile · webOS
Other
bada · BlackBerry OS · BlackBerry Tablet OS · GEOS · iOS · Nintendo DSi OS · Nokia OS (S30 · S40) · Palm OS · PSP OS · Symbian platform (Symbian OS · MOAP(S) · UIQ · S60 · S80 · S90) · SavaJe · Windows Mobile (Windows Phone 7)
Related BREW · Java ME (FX Mobile) platforms
Subcategories
This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
I
IOS (Apple)
M
Mobile Linux Mobile phone operating systems
W
Windows Mobile
Table showing most of the current mobile operating systems for smartphones, PDAs and netbooks in 2010.
Share of 2010 Q3 smartphone sales to end users by operating system, according to Gartner. Operating systems that can be found on smartphones like Nokia's Symbian OS, Apple's iOS, RIM's BlackBerry OS, Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, Linux, Palm WebOS, Google's Android, Samsung's Bada (operating system) and Nokia's Maemo. Android, Bada, WebOS and Maemo 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. The most common operating systems (OS) used in smartphones by Q3 2010 sales are: The Symbian OS and its successor Symbian platform from the Symbian Foundation (36.6% Market Share Sales Q3 2010), (open public license) 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. 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 has been used by many major handset manufacturers, including BenQ, Fujitsu, LG, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson. Current Symbian-based devices are being made by Fujitsu, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson. Prior to 2009 Symbian supported multiple user interfaces, i.e. UIQ from UIQ Technologies, S60 from Nokia, and MOAP from NTT DOCOMO. As part of the formation of the Symbian platform in 2009 these three UIs were merged into a single platform which is now fully open source. Recently, though shipments of Symbian devices have increased, the operating system's worldwide market share has declined from over 50% to just over 40% from 2009 to 2010. Android from Google Inc. (25.5% Market Share Sales Q3 2010), (open source, Apache) Android was developed by a small startup company that was purchased by Google Inc., and Google continues to update the software. Android is an open source, Linux-derived platform backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, Samsung, Motorola and eBay, to name a few), that form the Open Handset Alliance. This OS is fairly new, though has a following among programmers. There have been six releases of Android- Android 1.0, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2. All are nicknamed after a dessert item like Cupcake (1.5) or Frozen Yogurt (2.2). Most major mobile service providers carry an Android device.
The Apple iPad tablet computer uses a version of iOS. Since the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) was introduced, there has been an explosion in the amount of devices that carry Android OS. From Q2 of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, Android's worldwide market share rose 850% from 1.8% to 17.2%. iOS from Apple Inc. (16.7% Market Share Sales Q3 2010) (closed source, proprietary) The Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad all use an operating system called iOS, which is derived from Mac OS X. Third party applications were not officially supported until the release of iOS 2.0 on July 11th 2008. Before this, "jailbreaking" allowed third party applications to be installed, and this method is still available. Currently all iOS devices are developed by Apple and manufactured by Foxconn or another of Apple's partners.
RIM BlackBerry OS (14.8% Market Share Sales Q3 2010) (closed source, proprietary) 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. Currently Blackberry's App World has over 6,000 downloadable applications.
Windows Mobile from Microsoft (2.8% Market Share Sales Q3 2010) (closed source, proprietary) 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 (for touch screen devices) and Windows Mobile 6 Standard, were unveiled in February 2007. 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.
Windows Mobile's market share has sharply declined in recent years to just 5% in Q2 of 2010. Microsoft is phasing out the Windows Mobile OS to specialized markets and is instead focusing on it's new platform, Windows Phone. Windows Phone from Microsoft (negligible Market Share Sales in October 2010) (closed source, proprietary) On February 15th, 2010 Microsoft unveiled its next-generation mobile OS, Windows Phone 7. The new mobile OS includes a completely new over-hauled UI inspired by Microsoft's "Metro Design Language". It includes full integration of Microsoft services such as Windows Live, Zune, Xbox Live and Bing, but also integrates with many other non-Microsoft services such as Facebook and Google accounts. The new OS platform has received some positive reception from the technology press. As Windows Phone 7 is a new platform, there is no backwards compatibility with Windows Mobile applications and some power-user features that were in Windows Mobile will not be present until near-future updates.
The Palm Pre running HP (formerly Palm) webOS. HP purchased Palm in 2010. Linux operating system (open source, GPL) (2.1% Market Share Sales Q3 2010, non-Android Linux-based OS's only) 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. Palm Source (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. Palm webOS from HP (certain parts open sourced) and Palm OS/Garnet OS from Access Co. (closed source, proprietary)
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 Palmbased devices. bada from Samsung Electronics (closed source, proprietary) This is a mobile operating system being developed by Samsung Electronics. Samsung claims that bada will rapidly replace its proprietary feature phone platform, converting feature phones to smartphones. The name 'bada' is derived from 바다, the Korean word for ocean or sea. The first device to run bada is called 'Wave' and was unveiled to the public at Mobile World Congress 2010. The Wave is a fully touch screen phone running the new mobile operating system. With the phone, Samsung also released an app store, called Samsung Apps, to the public. It has close to 3000 mobile applications. Samsung has said that they don't see Bada as a smartphone platform, but as a platform with a kernel configurable architecture, which allows the use of either proprietary Realtime operating system (RTOS) kernel, or the Linux kernel. Though Samsung plans to install bada on many phones, the company still has a large lineup of Android phones. MeeGo from Nokia and Intel (open source, GPL) At the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia and Intel both unveiled 'MeeGo' a brand new mobile operating system which would combine the best of Moblin and the best of Maemo to create a truly open-sourced experience for users across all devices. Maemo from Nokia (open source, GPL) Maemo is a software platform developed by Nokia for smartphones and Internet Tablets. It is based on the Debian operating system. Maemo is mostly based on open source code, and has been developed by Maemo Devices within Nokia in collaboration with many open source projects such as the Linux kernel, Debian and GNOME. Maemo is based on Debian GNU/Linux and draws much of its GUI, frameworks and libraries from the GNOME project. It uses the Matchbox window manager and the GTKbased Hildon as its GUI and application framework.
Worldwide smartphone operating system market shares
Source Gartner
Date 2010 3Q
Symbian BlackBerry Android iOS OS OS (Apple) 36.6% 14.8% 25.5% 16.7%
Windows Others Mobile 2.8% 1.5%
Smart phones
Windows Mobile or Windows Phone
These handsets run a mobile operating system designed by Microsoft. The bundled software with
these units lets you open, create and edit Microsoft Office files as well as run thousands of third party applications. Their connectivity with Microsoft Exchange servers is excellent but web browsing still has room for improvement. A 2009 survey by CFI Group showcased that the Windows Mobile users had the lowest level of customer satisfaction when compared to users of other smartphones. Out of a possible 100 points, Windows Mobile was only rated with a mere 66, compared with BlackBerry’s (73), Palm Pre’s (77), Google’s Android (77), and iPhone’s (83). And also a bottom line, with Microsoft not many things come for free! J. With its latest operating system of series 7 in place, time will only tell that how popular it will be in comparison with other mobile operating systems.
BlackBerry
Blackberry started all from its messenger service and now it’s a full fledge mobile phone maker. If you expect to receive lots of e-mails and SMS then BlackBerry is still the best messaging platform for mobile workers. Web browsing works but can be a little frustrating as BlackBerry reformats websites to reduce the bandwidth they use. However, the future versions of the BlackBerry OS will ship with a Web kit-based browser so that part of user experience (UE) should be greatly enhanced. One of the BlackBerry’s big advantages is that the service is very data efficient. Everything is compressed and encrypted so it works well even when connectivity is limited to a 2G network. Research In Motion (RIM) appears to be on the verge of making a strategic about-face by making a transitional change in its Black Berry devices from its in-house mobile operating system to the QNX OS that’s powering its new Play Book tablet PC. But at this critical environment, when Apple’s i-Pads and i-Phones are flying off the shelves like hot cakes and Google’s Android-based smartphones are selling even faster, any move from Research in Motion (RIM) can make to jumpstart demand and encourage developers to start writing new media-rich apps would be a good first step toward restoring some popularity to the BlackBerry brand. But still with Blackberry specific data/internet plans it still only rules office guys and not college going youngsters due to high data charges.
Android
Here comes the latest album thriller these days. As the new kid on the block, Google’s Android operating system has made a huge splash in the mobile OS segment; after all it’s from a Google’s family. Already embraced by developers, there are many third party apps to cover almost every user’s needs. Google’s android is a differentially new, so it managed to attract huge fans but as time goes by it will surely be a stable kid. But for now, among all the Mobile O.S,
Android is a rock star, but please be ware, kids are always attractive, so the bottom line is BEFORE GOING FOR ANDROID, DON’T FORGET to try it. Like it, Own it is the only one liner comes in my mind. No doubt, this has become the darling of the masses.
Apple iOS Ahh. Apple! The iPhone probably offers the best overall package of mobile functions although it’s not necessarily the best at anything. While BlackBerry has the best messaging and Windows Mobile and Android offer superior business support for Office files, the iPhone is easy to use and its web browser is still the best for mobile browsing although the lack of Flash support is a real problem. Many of the features taken for granted on other platforms like a unified Inbox for multiple email accounts and multitasking are coming in the soon to be release iPhone OS 4.If you are a person who wants to experience touch at its best and love the pinching of pictures then iPhone is for you.
Symbian
This is operating system used by Nokia and Sony Ericsson. While Symbian is very common, there are many different versions of it so applications that work on one handset may not work on another. However, it is purpose-built for phones and is reasonably easy to use. The flop show of Symbian is only due to its lack of fight back in terms of improvements; it seems that Symbian has lost all imagination and invention. Going for Symbian now at this stage is like choosing a second hand car J as Symbian continuously failed to rope in interesting and innovative changes in its user interface. Be it a 10k priced phone or 50k phone all the interface remains the same.
Palm Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a mobile operating system which was initially developed by Palm.Inc, for personal digital assistant (PDAs) in 1996. From then it is with the glint of a tear in our eyes that look back at Palm. For a long time, the Palm OS was the standard when compared with other mobile operating systems. The software was fast, reliable and there was an incredibly active developer environment which was praised by everyone. At some point, the fire of innovation dimmed and eventually went out with Palm’s hardware ending up running Windows Mobile phones instead. In my view, that was the beginning of the end for Palm operating system. Hopefully, Hewlett Packard will take over Palm and we’ll see some great new hardware and kick-ass software innovations sooner than later.
Smartphone operating systems feature comparison
Only the latest versions are shown in this table, even though old versions may still be marketed.
Windo Black Windows ws Berry Symbia Maemo Android webOS Mobile Phone n OS 7
Feature
iOS
MeeGo
Bada
Open Compan Handset HP/Pal Apple Microsoft y Alliance( m, Inc Google) Current 4.1 2.2 1.4.5 6.5.3 Version Mac OS OS Windows Linux Linux Family X/Uni CE 5.2 x-like ARM, Supporte MIPS, d CPU ARM Power ARM ARM Architec Architect ture ure, x86 C, Program C++, C, C++, C C++ med in Object Java ive-C Propri Free Free and etary and open EULA open source except source except Proprietar License for except closed y open closed source source source compone comp module nts onents s Prewar Windows e (3rd Mobile Package iTune ? party Device manager s homeb Center/A rew) ctiveSync Default Internet Web Webki Explorer Webkit Webkit Browser t Mobile /Engine 6.0
Micro RIM soft
Symbia Linux n Sams Nokia Foundati Founda ung on tion 5.0 1.0 1.2
7.0.70 6.0.0 9.5 04.0
Wind Mobil Mobile ows Linux e OS OS CE 7
Linux
Linux
ARM ARM
ARM, ARM x86
ARM, x86
ARM
C++
Java
C++
C/C++ C++
C++
Free and open Eclipse source Free and Propri Propri Public Propr except open etary etary Licens ietary closed source e source compo nents Zune PC ? softwa re rpm+yu dpkg+a m+zyppe ? pt-get r
?
Intern et Webk Webkit Gecko Webkit Explo it rer
Webk it
(Trident) Mobil e 7.0 (Tride nt) Wind 3rd Windows App ows Party App Android Marketpl App Catalo Phone Applicat Store Market ace for World g Marke ion Store Mobile tplace Email Sync POP3, POP3, BES, POP3, POP3, POP3, protocol IMAP IMAP BIS, IMAP, IMAP, IMAP, s , , Push MAPI MAPI MAPI supporte MAPI MAPI e-mail d Push Exam Exam Notificat Example Yes Example Yes ple ple ions Voice Exam Recognit Yes No Yes Yes Yes ple ion Blueto oth, USB (carrie Mobile r Hotspo depen t USB, dent), Wi-Fi, (officia Bluetooth USB, Tetherin Wi-Fi USB, lly , Wi-Fi Bluet g (with Bluetoot Verizo (with 3rd ooth, 3rd h n party Wi-Fi party Wirele software) softwa ss re and only) "jail break" ) Text/Do cument Support AAC AAC Audio (8 to LC/LTP Playbac 320 3GPP, k Kbps), HEMP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, MP3, MP3, AAC, WAV AAC+ E, , WMA
Symbia maemo n .org, Horizo Ovi n store
Sams ung App
POP3, POP3, POP3, IMAP IMAP IMAP
POP3 , IMA P
Yes
Yes
USB, Blueto oth, Wi-Fi (with 3rd party softwar e
microU SB, Bluetoo th, WiFi
micro USB, Bluet ooth 3.0, Wi-Fi
text files, PDF, HTML All (some require optiona
Most
Protec AACv1 QCEL ted (AAC+), P, AAC HEWAV (from AACv2 iTune (enhance s d Store), AAC+), HE- AMRAAC, NB, MP3 AMR(8 to WB, 320 MP3 Kbps), (Mono/S MP3 tereo 8VBR, 320 Apple kbit/s Lossle constant ss, or AIFF, variable WAV bit-rate, MIDI (MIDI Type 0 and 1. DLS Version 1 and 2., Ogg Vorbis, PCM/W AVE (8and 16bit linear PCM (rates up to limit of hardware ), WAVE H.264 H.263, AVC, MPEG Video H.264 MPE -4, Playbac AVC, G-4, H.263, k MPEG-4 MH.264 SP JPEG
eAAC , +, AAC WAV, +, WMA MIDI, pro, AMR, AMR- eAAC NB, +, MIDI FlAC, OGG
l debian packag es)
H.263 , H.264 , WMV ,
MP4, WMV , H.263 , H.264
All (some require optiona l debian
Many
MPE G4, MPE G4@ HD 720p 30fps, DivX, XviD
, DivX, WMV , XviD, 3gp
packag es)
3rd Google Carrier Party 3rd Maps softwar 3rd Softwa Turn-byParty Navigati e, 3rd 3rd Party Bing Party re, turn softwa on or 3rd Party Software Maps Softw manufa GPS re Party Softwa are cturers software re softwar e Video out VGA, 720p on up to select No 576p, devices 480p
free global Nokia Ovi Maps
Sams ung LBS (Rout e 66))
Nokia Device AV None depend Out ing (PAL/ NTSC) Yes Yes (limite Yes d) Yes (throu gh ? "live tiles") Yes Yes Yes
DLN A
limite Multitas d, Yes king iOS4 only Desktop interacti No ve widgets Support for Yes hardwar (Bluet e ooth) keyboar d Yes (Curre Videoco ntly nference iPhon front e4 video and camera iPod Touch
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes (Hardwa re Currentl No y Availabl e on Some
No
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
4 Models) Only) Can share images via No Yes No ? Bluetoot h with all mobile Skype Yes Yes No ? Faceboo 3rd k IM Yes ? party ? chat patch Jailbre aking Requi red and Open SSH ssh Install Yes ? ? ed (free from Cydia Appli cation ) OpenVP ? ? ? ? N Remote Frame ? ? ? ? Buffer Official SDK Mac Multiplat Multipl Windows platform OS X form atform (s)
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
? Yes
Yes Yes
Yes ?
Yes Yes
Yes Yes
? ?
?
Yes
?
Yes
Yes
?
? ?
Yes ?
? ?
Yes Yes
Yes Yes
? ?
Wind Wind Windo GNU/L GNU/Lin Wind ows ows ws inux ux ows
Feature phone operating systems
Common operating systems for feature phones include Nokia OS with user interfaces S30 or S40. S40 offers APIs for Java ME.
Reference:
http://www.amitbhawani.com/blog/mobile-os-smart-phones-types/ http://ev.Wikipedia.com/mobile-phone-poerating-systems/ http://www.webopedia.com
Mobile Operating Systems (MOS)
Prof: Muhammad Moazam Ali
Group Name: Twinkle 2
By: Hassam Rasheed (Leader) Daniyal Ali Junaid Siddique Umair Tariq BAT11327 BAT11362 BAT11318 BAT11315
Mobile Operating System
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 device or information appliance—similar in principle to an operating system such as Windows, Mac OS, or Linux that controls a desktop computer or laptop. 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. Typical examples of devices running a mobile operating system are Smartphone, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers and information appliances, or what are sometimes referred to as smart devices, which may also include embedded systems, or other mobile devices and wireless devices. Today's mobile devices are multi-functional devices capable of hosting a broad range of applications for both business and consumer use. PDAs and the ever-growing category of smart phones allow people to access the Internet for e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging and Web browsing, as well as work documents, contact lists and more. Mobile devices are often seen as an extension to your own PC. Work done on the road or away from the office can be synchronized with your PC to reflect changes and new information.
History
The increasing importance of mobile devices has triggered intense competition among technology giants, like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Nokia in a bid to capture the bigger market share pre-emptively. Palm, Research in Motion and Ericsson are 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.
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 UltraMobile PC (UMPC). Meantime, Palm abandoned its plan to develop Foleo, which was to be a companion device for a Smartphone.
Mobile navigation
Canalys has estimated that in 2009 the installed base of Smartphone with integrated GPS was 163 million units worldwide, of which Nokia accounted for more than half (51%) having shipped
cumulatively 83 million GPS devices. On January 22, 2010, Nokia released a free version of Ovi Maps which is expected to double user amount.
Smartphone operating systems
Smartphone operating systems
Linuxbased
Access Linux · Android · DSLinux · Familiar · iPod Linux · LiMo · MeeGo (Moblin · Maemo · Qt Extended) · Mobilinux · Openmoko Linux · OPhone · SHR · Qt Extended Improved · Ubuntu Mobile · webOS
Other
bada · BlackBerry OS · BlackBerry Tablet OS · GEOS · iOS · Nintendo DSi OS · Nokia OS (S30 · S40) · Palm OS · PSP OS · Symbian platform (Symbian OS · MOAP(S) · UIQ · S60 · S80 · S90) · SavaJe · Windows Mobile (Windows Phone 7)
Related BREW · Java ME (FX Mobile) platforms
Subcategories
This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
I
IOS (Apple)
M
Mobile Linux Mobile phone operating systems
W
Windows Mobile
Table showing most of the current mobile operating systems for smartphones, PDAs and netbooks in 2010.
Share of 2010 Q3 smartphone sales to end users by operating system, according to Gartner. Operating systems that can be found on smartphones like Nokia's Symbian OS, Apple's iOS, RIM's BlackBerry OS, Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, Linux, Palm WebOS, Google's Android, Samsung's Bada (operating system) and Nokia's Maemo. Android, Bada, WebOS and Maemo 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. The most common operating systems (OS) used in smartphones by Q3 2010 sales are: The Symbian OS and its successor Symbian platform from the Symbian Foundation (36.6% Market Share Sales Q3 2010), (open public license) 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. 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 has been used by many major handset manufacturers, including BenQ, Fujitsu, LG, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson. Current Symbian-based devices are being made by Fujitsu, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson. Prior to 2009 Symbian supported multiple user interfaces, i.e. UIQ from UIQ Technologies, S60 from Nokia, and MOAP from NTT DOCOMO. As part of the formation of the Symbian platform in 2009 these three UIs were merged into a single platform which is now fully open source. Recently, though shipments of Symbian devices have increased, the operating system's worldwide market share has declined from over 50% to just over 40% from 2009 to 2010. Android from Google Inc. (25.5% Market Share Sales Q3 2010), (open source, Apache) Android was developed by a small startup company that was purchased by Google Inc., and Google continues to update the software. Android is an open source, Linux-derived platform backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, Samsung, Motorola and eBay, to name a few), that form the Open Handset Alliance. This OS is fairly new, though has a following among programmers. There have been six releases of Android- Android 1.0, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2. All are nicknamed after a dessert item like Cupcake (1.5) or Frozen Yogurt (2.2). Most major mobile service providers carry an Android device.
The Apple iPad tablet computer uses a version of iOS. Since the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) was introduced, there has been an explosion in the amount of devices that carry Android OS. From Q2 of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, Android's worldwide market share rose 850% from 1.8% to 17.2%. iOS from Apple Inc. (16.7% Market Share Sales Q3 2010) (closed source, proprietary) The Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad all use an operating system called iOS, which is derived from Mac OS X. Third party applications were not officially supported until the release of iOS 2.0 on July 11th 2008. Before this, "jailbreaking" allowed third party applications to be installed, and this method is still available. Currently all iOS devices are developed by Apple and manufactured by Foxconn or another of Apple's partners.
RIM BlackBerry OS (14.8% Market Share Sales Q3 2010) (closed source, proprietary) 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. Currently Blackberry's App World has over 6,000 downloadable applications.
Windows Mobile from Microsoft (2.8% Market Share Sales Q3 2010) (closed source, proprietary) 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 (for touch screen devices) and Windows Mobile 6 Standard, were unveiled in February 2007. 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.
Windows Mobile's market share has sharply declined in recent years to just 5% in Q2 of 2010. Microsoft is phasing out the Windows Mobile OS to specialized markets and is instead focusing on it's new platform, Windows Phone. Windows Phone from Microsoft (negligible Market Share Sales in October 2010) (closed source, proprietary) On February 15th, 2010 Microsoft unveiled its next-generation mobile OS, Windows Phone 7. The new mobile OS includes a completely new over-hauled UI inspired by Microsoft's "Metro Design Language". It includes full integration of Microsoft services such as Windows Live, Zune, Xbox Live and Bing, but also integrates with many other non-Microsoft services such as Facebook and Google accounts. The new OS platform has received some positive reception from the technology press. As Windows Phone 7 is a new platform, there is no backwards compatibility with Windows Mobile applications and some power-user features that were in Windows Mobile will not be present until near-future updates.
The Palm Pre running HP (formerly Palm) webOS. HP purchased Palm in 2010. Linux operating system (open source, GPL) (2.1% Market Share Sales Q3 2010, non-Android Linux-based OS's only) 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. Palm Source (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. Palm webOS from HP (certain parts open sourced) and Palm OS/Garnet OS from Access Co. (closed source, proprietary)
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 Palmbased devices. bada from Samsung Electronics (closed source, proprietary) This is a mobile operating system being developed by Samsung Electronics. Samsung claims that bada will rapidly replace its proprietary feature phone platform, converting feature phones to smartphones. The name 'bada' is derived from 바다, the Korean word for ocean or sea. The first device to run bada is called 'Wave' and was unveiled to the public at Mobile World Congress 2010. The Wave is a fully touch screen phone running the new mobile operating system. With the phone, Samsung also released an app store, called Samsung Apps, to the public. It has close to 3000 mobile applications. Samsung has said that they don't see Bada as a smartphone platform, but as a platform with a kernel configurable architecture, which allows the use of either proprietary Realtime operating system (RTOS) kernel, or the Linux kernel. Though Samsung plans to install bada on many phones, the company still has a large lineup of Android phones. MeeGo from Nokia and Intel (open source, GPL) At the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia and Intel both unveiled 'MeeGo' a brand new mobile operating system which would combine the best of Moblin and the best of Maemo to create a truly open-sourced experience for users across all devices. Maemo from Nokia (open source, GPL) Maemo is a software platform developed by Nokia for smartphones and Internet Tablets. It is based on the Debian operating system. Maemo is mostly based on open source code, and has been developed by Maemo Devices within Nokia in collaboration with many open source projects such as the Linux kernel, Debian and GNOME. Maemo is based on Debian GNU/Linux and draws much of its GUI, frameworks and libraries from the GNOME project. It uses the Matchbox window manager and the GTKbased Hildon as its GUI and application framework.
Worldwide smartphone operating system market shares
Source Gartner
Date 2010 3Q
Symbian BlackBerry Android iOS OS OS (Apple) 36.6% 14.8% 25.5% 16.7%
Windows Others Mobile 2.8% 1.5%
Smart phones
Windows Mobile or Windows Phone
These handsets run a mobile operating system designed by Microsoft. The bundled software with
these units lets you open, create and edit Microsoft Office files as well as run thousands of third party applications. Their connectivity with Microsoft Exchange servers is excellent but web browsing still has room for improvement. A 2009 survey by CFI Group showcased that the Windows Mobile users had the lowest level of customer satisfaction when compared to users of other smartphones. Out of a possible 100 points, Windows Mobile was only rated with a mere 66, compared with BlackBerry’s (73), Palm Pre’s (77), Google’s Android (77), and iPhone’s (83). And also a bottom line, with Microsoft not many things come for free! J. With its latest operating system of series 7 in place, time will only tell that how popular it will be in comparison with other mobile operating systems.
BlackBerry
Blackberry started all from its messenger service and now it’s a full fledge mobile phone maker. If you expect to receive lots of e-mails and SMS then BlackBerry is still the best messaging platform for mobile workers. Web browsing works but can be a little frustrating as BlackBerry reformats websites to reduce the bandwidth they use. However, the future versions of the BlackBerry OS will ship with a Web kit-based browser so that part of user experience (UE) should be greatly enhanced. One of the BlackBerry’s big advantages is that the service is very data efficient. Everything is compressed and encrypted so it works well even when connectivity is limited to a 2G network. Research In Motion (RIM) appears to be on the verge of making a strategic about-face by making a transitional change in its Black Berry devices from its in-house mobile operating system to the QNX OS that’s powering its new Play Book tablet PC. But at this critical environment, when Apple’s i-Pads and i-Phones are flying off the shelves like hot cakes and Google’s Android-based smartphones are selling even faster, any move from Research in Motion (RIM) can make to jumpstart demand and encourage developers to start writing new media-rich apps would be a good first step toward restoring some popularity to the BlackBerry brand. But still with Blackberry specific data/internet plans it still only rules office guys and not college going youngsters due to high data charges.
Android
Here comes the latest album thriller these days. As the new kid on the block, Google’s Android operating system has made a huge splash in the mobile OS segment; after all it’s from a Google’s family. Already embraced by developers, there are many third party apps to cover almost every user’s needs. Google’s android is a differentially new, so it managed to attract huge fans but as time goes by it will surely be a stable kid. But for now, among all the Mobile O.S,
Android is a rock star, but please be ware, kids are always attractive, so the bottom line is BEFORE GOING FOR ANDROID, DON’T FORGET to try it. Like it, Own it is the only one liner comes in my mind. No doubt, this has become the darling of the masses.
Apple iOS Ahh. Apple! The iPhone probably offers the best overall package of mobile functions although it’s not necessarily the best at anything. While BlackBerry has the best messaging and Windows Mobile and Android offer superior business support for Office files, the iPhone is easy to use and its web browser is still the best for mobile browsing although the lack of Flash support is a real problem. Many of the features taken for granted on other platforms like a unified Inbox for multiple email accounts and multitasking are coming in the soon to be release iPhone OS 4.If you are a person who wants to experience touch at its best and love the pinching of pictures then iPhone is for you.
Symbian
This is operating system used by Nokia and Sony Ericsson. While Symbian is very common, there are many different versions of it so applications that work on one handset may not work on another. However, it is purpose-built for phones and is reasonably easy to use. The flop show of Symbian is only due to its lack of fight back in terms of improvements; it seems that Symbian has lost all imagination and invention. Going for Symbian now at this stage is like choosing a second hand car J as Symbian continuously failed to rope in interesting and innovative changes in its user interface. Be it a 10k priced phone or 50k phone all the interface remains the same.
Palm Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a mobile operating system which was initially developed by Palm.Inc, for personal digital assistant (PDAs) in 1996. From then it is with the glint of a tear in our eyes that look back at Palm. For a long time, the Palm OS was the standard when compared with other mobile operating systems. The software was fast, reliable and there was an incredibly active developer environment which was praised by everyone. At some point, the fire of innovation dimmed and eventually went out with Palm’s hardware ending up running Windows Mobile phones instead. In my view, that was the beginning of the end for Palm operating system. Hopefully, Hewlett Packard will take over Palm and we’ll see some great new hardware and kick-ass software innovations sooner than later.
Smartphone operating systems feature comparison
Only the latest versions are shown in this table, even though old versions may still be marketed.
Windo Black Windows ws Berry Symbia Maemo Android webOS Mobile Phone n OS 7
Feature
iOS
MeeGo
Bada
Open Compan Handset HP/Pal Apple Microsoft y Alliance( m, Inc Google) Current 4.1 2.2 1.4.5 6.5.3 Version Mac OS OS Windows Linux Linux Family X/Uni CE 5.2 x-like ARM, Supporte MIPS, d CPU ARM Power ARM ARM Architec Architect ture ure, x86 C, Program C++, C, C++, C C++ med in Object Java ive-C Propri Free Free and etary and open EULA open source except source except Proprietar License for except closed y open closed source source source compone comp module nts onents s Prewar Windows e (3rd Mobile Package iTune ? party Device manager s homeb Center/A rew) ctiveSync Default Internet Web Webki Explorer Webkit Webkit Browser t Mobile /Engine 6.0
Micro RIM soft
Symbia Linux n Sams Nokia Foundati Founda ung on tion 5.0 1.0 1.2
7.0.70 6.0.0 9.5 04.0
Wind Mobil Mobile ows Linux e OS OS CE 7
Linux
Linux
ARM ARM
ARM, ARM x86
ARM, x86
ARM
C++
Java
C++
C/C++ C++
C++
Free and open Eclipse source Free and Propri Propri Public Propr except open etary etary Licens ietary closed source e source compo nents Zune PC ? softwa re rpm+yu dpkg+a m+zyppe ? pt-get r
?
Intern et Webk Webkit Gecko Webkit Explo it rer
Webk it
(Trident) Mobil e 7.0 (Tride nt) Wind 3rd Windows App ows Party App Android Marketpl App Catalo Phone Applicat Store Market ace for World g Marke ion Store Mobile tplace Email Sync POP3, POP3, BES, POP3, POP3, POP3, protocol IMAP IMAP BIS, IMAP, IMAP, IMAP, s , , Push MAPI MAPI MAPI supporte MAPI MAPI e-mail d Push Exam Exam Notificat Example Yes Example Yes ple ple ions Voice Exam Recognit Yes No Yes Yes Yes ple ion Blueto oth, USB (carrie Mobile r Hotspo depen t USB, dent), Wi-Fi, (officia Bluetooth USB, Tetherin Wi-Fi USB, lly , Wi-Fi Bluet g (with Bluetoot Verizo (with 3rd ooth, 3rd h n party Wi-Fi party Wirele software) softwa ss re and only) "jail break" ) Text/Do cument Support AAC AAC Audio (8 to LC/LTP Playbac 320 3GPP, k Kbps), HEMP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, MP3, MP3, AAC, WAV AAC+ E, , WMA
Symbia maemo n .org, Horizo Ovi n store
Sams ung App
POP3, POP3, POP3, IMAP IMAP IMAP
POP3 , IMA P
Yes
Yes
USB, Blueto oth, Wi-Fi (with 3rd party softwar e
microU SB, Bluetoo th, WiFi
micro USB, Bluet ooth 3.0, Wi-Fi
text files, PDF, HTML All (some require optiona
Most
Protec AACv1 QCEL ted (AAC+), P, AAC HEWAV (from AACv2 iTune (enhance s d Store), AAC+), HE- AMRAAC, NB, MP3 AMR(8 to WB, 320 MP3 Kbps), (Mono/S MP3 tereo 8VBR, 320 Apple kbit/s Lossle constant ss, or AIFF, variable WAV bit-rate, MIDI (MIDI Type 0 and 1. DLS Version 1 and 2., Ogg Vorbis, PCM/W AVE (8and 16bit linear PCM (rates up to limit of hardware ), WAVE H.264 H.263, AVC, MPEG Video H.264 MPE -4, Playbac AVC, G-4, H.263, k MPEG-4 MH.264 SP JPEG
eAAC , +, AAC WAV, +, WMA MIDI, pro, AMR, AMR- eAAC NB, +, MIDI FlAC, OGG
l debian packag es)
H.263 , H.264 , WMV ,
MP4, WMV , H.263 , H.264
All (some require optiona l debian
Many
MPE G4, MPE G4@ HD 720p 30fps, DivX, XviD
, DivX, WMV , XviD, 3gp
packag es)
3rd Google Carrier Party 3rd Maps softwar 3rd Softwa Turn-byParty Navigati e, 3rd 3rd Party Bing Party re, turn softwa on or 3rd Party Software Maps Softw manufa GPS re Party Softwa are cturers software re softwar e Video out VGA, 720p on up to select No 576p, devices 480p
free global Nokia Ovi Maps
Sams ung LBS (Rout e 66))
Nokia Device AV None depend Out ing (PAL/ NTSC) Yes Yes (limite Yes d) Yes (throu gh ? "live tiles") Yes Yes Yes
DLN A
limite Multitas d, Yes king iOS4 only Desktop interacti No ve widgets Support for Yes hardwar (Bluet e ooth) keyboar d Yes (Curre Videoco ntly nference iPhon front e4 video and camera iPod Touch
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes (Hardwa re Currentl No y Availabl e on Some
No
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
4 Models) Only) Can share images via No Yes No ? Bluetoot h with all mobile Skype Yes Yes No ? Faceboo 3rd k IM Yes ? party ? chat patch Jailbre aking Requi red and Open SSH ssh Install Yes ? ? ed (free from Cydia Appli cation ) OpenVP ? ? ? ? N Remote Frame ? ? ? ? Buffer Official SDK Mac Multiplat Multipl Windows platform OS X form atform (s)
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
? Yes
Yes Yes
Yes ?
Yes Yes
Yes Yes
? ?
?
Yes
?
Yes
Yes
?
? ?
Yes ?
? ?
Yes Yes
Yes Yes
? ?
Wind Wind Windo GNU/L GNU/Lin Wind ows ows ws inux ux ows
Feature phone operating systems
Common operating systems for feature phones include Nokia OS with user interfaces S30 or S40. S40 offers APIs for Java ME.
Reference:
http://www.amitbhawani.com/blog/mobile-os-smart-phones-types/ http://ev.Wikipedia.com/mobile-phone-poerating-systems/ http://www.webopedia.com
