BlackBerry Source Glossary
SmartPhone Operating Systems
The most common operating systems (OS) used in smartphones are:
- Symbian OS from Symbian Ltd. (72.4% Market Share)
- Symbian has the largest share in most markets worldwide, but lags 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 44.5% 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 all the major handset manufacturers, including Motorola, Samsung, LG, and BenQ. It has received some adverse press attention due to virus threats (actually trojan horses).
- Windows Mobile from Microsoft (6.1% Market Share)
- Windows CE operating system along with 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 February 2007 and in the first half of 2008 respectively.
RIM BlackBerry operating system (5.3% Market Share)
The BlackBerry 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.
Palm OS developed by PalmSource (now a subsidiary of ACCESS). (1.6% Market Share)
- Linux operating system (13.3% Market Share)
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 Motorola and TrollTech, which are mostly incompatible. PalmSource (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.
- PalmSource traditionally used its own platform developed by Palm Inc. Access Linux Platform (ALP) is an improvement that is 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.
- OS X from Apple, Inc. (1.3% Market Share)
The iPhone uses an operating system derived from Mac OS X. Note that Apple and AT&T do not currently allow third party programs to be installed onto iPhones. Officially, developers can only write applications for the iPhone by creating a web service that can be accessed via the included web browser. However, some have reported being able to install applications onto the iPhone via unofficial methods.Market Share data from Canalys report "Worldwide smart mobile device market, Canalys Q2 2007"
Dual-OS handsets have also been announced, such as the FIC Neo1973 which may run OpenMoko or Windows Mobile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
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