Operating System
Many people have extensive knowledge about various mobile phones and their companies, but
very few of them know anything about operating systems which is indeed very important to
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know about since only by knowing will customers can really understand what is behind the
smartphone smoothness and colorful touchscreen.
Symbian OS used to be a closed source mobile operating system but it is now an open source
platform. It is widely used by many brands such as Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericson and above
all Nokia. Nokia remains a giant in the low-end market of mobile phones, and it remained as
the most popular OS until 2012. Though it is still widely used in low-end phones, but there has
been a sharp decrease in demand rate. Overall, the Symbian OS is designed excellently and very
easy to use.
Unfortunately, Symbian OS graph is going down today due to the popularity of
Android and iOS. Some phones are currently running on Symbian OS are the Nokia C6-01,
Nokia 603, Nokia 700, Nokia 808 Pure View, Nokia E6 (ANNA) and Nokia 701 (BELLE).
Blackberry OS is the property of RIM (Research in Motion) and was first released in 1999. RIM
has developed this operating system for the Blackberry line of smart phones. Blackberry is quite
different than other operating systems. The brand is famous for its style of interface design.
Their smart phones have a trackball to move on the menu and a QWERTY keyboard
Like Apple, Blackberry OS is a closed source operating system and not available for any other
manufacturer. Currently the latest version of this operating system is Blackberry OS 7.1 was
introduced in May 2011 and is used in the Blackberry Bold 9930. It is an operating system very
reliable and immune to almost all virus. Some of the smart phone works on the Blackberry OS
Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Torch and Blackberry 8520 (Chris 2009).
Most of you must be familiar with Microsoft operating system since it is used in almost every
computers worldwide. However, it is quite difficult to use when it is designed to function on a
mobile phone. But it still gains a lot of attention and rapidly becomes popular. One reason for
its success could be that it is operated on very powerful devices made by Nokia. Even Samsung
and HTC also released a number of Windows-based phones, but they may not have much in the
market place. Nokia Lumia series is entirely based on the window. Some of the newest Windows
Phone Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 900, Samsung Focus and HTC Titan 2
. Microsoft is now
hard at work on Windows 10, which will be a unified OS that runs on everything from PC’s to
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tablets and phones. Microsoft’s problem isn’t the technology or software, but rather the issue of
winning the hearts and minds of consumers.
Unfortunately, in the race to win the smartphone OS battle, it’s hard to see Windows Phone or
BlackBerry make any inroads into Android and iOS’ market share anytime soon due to this
reason: most smartphone buyers tend to fall into two categories: those who love Android huge
selection of devices and prices or those who prefer a closed system worked on a premium
devices such as IPhone and IPad.
Google first released Android on September 20, 2008 and this operating system quickly gained
immense popularity thanks to its beautiful appearance and a huge amount of applications.
Google Play is an official app market which contains millions of different apps for android
devices. Top manufacturers are using Android in their devices are Samsung, HTC and Sony.
Currently Android is one of the top operating systems and is considered a serious threat for
iPhone. As for it wide range of price, Android market share is strongest in low income countries.
Turing to IOS operating system, it was introduced in 29th June 2007 and through many upgrades
it has reached IOS 8. It is still exclusive used by Apple and unlike Android, the company focus
on the performance rather than appearance. In another word, Apple sell experience, not
hardware. IOS also has App Store which contains millions of applications. One benefit over
Android is that it is a closed system so its security is much better and at the moment it is still
the best looking phone.