MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEM

Content

Introduction

Brief History
Present Requisites for Mobile OS Various Mobile OSs Market Share of Current Top OSs Future Trends References

- Introduction

An operating system for mobile device is the software platform on top of which other programs, called application programs, can run on mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, and handheld computers. Abbreviated as mobile OS. Modern mobile operating systems combine the features of a personal computer operating system with touchscreen, cellular, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS mobile navigation, camera, video camera, speech recognition, voice recorder, music player, Near field communication, personal digital assistant (PDA), and other features. Most of the handheld devices run on the underlying ARM architecture. Today we are seeing a variety of mobile OSs available in the market, the most prominent & dominants are Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, Windows, Symbian etc.

- Brief History: A Few Major Milestones

1979-1992 Mobile phones have embedded systems to control operation. 1993 The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, had a touchscreen, email, and PDA features. 1996 First Windows CE Handheld PC devices are introduced. 2000 Symbian became the first modern mobile OS on a smartphone 2002 BlackBerry releases its first smartphone. 2007 Apple iPhone with iOS introduced as an iPod, "mobile phone" and "internet communicator.

2007 Open Handset Alliance (OHA) formed by Google, HTC, Samsung, Intel, Sony, etc.
2008 OHA releases Android 1.0 with the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) as the first Android phone. 2009 Samsung announces the Bada OS with the introduction of the Samsung S8500.

2010 Windows Phone OS phones are released but are not compatible with the previous Windows
Mobile OS.

2012 The Lenovo K800 will be the first Intel powered smartphone (Android OS).

- Present Requisites for Mobile OS

A mobile operating system should be compact and energy efficient. Should be able to handle multiple communication protocols. With increase in capabilities of the underlying hardware it has become quite necessary for mobile OS to support complex tasks such as:

multitasking , data services , multiplayer gaming , motion sensing etc.

- Various Mobile OSs

Currently market exists many mobile OSs, having their own features & drawbacks. The mobile OSs today have enabled a normal, non IT user to access & use many features that were complicated earlier. The major OSs that currently rule the market are

Android [Open Handset Alliance] iOS [Apple] Blackberry OS [Research In Motion] Windows Phone OS [Microsoft]

Symbian OS [Symbian Corporation]

The OSs of that will try to make it big in future

Bada OS [Samsung] Already in Market Boot to Gecko [Mozilla Corporation] Tizen [The Linux Foundation] Windows 8 [Microsoft]

On the next few slides, we will see the OSs that Rule the Market

- Various Mobile OSs: Android

Developed & released by the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) led by Google in Nov 2007.

Android is a Linux-based Open Source Mobile Operating System.

Android runs on Smartphones, Tablets, Netbooks, etc. In future Cameras also will come with Android. Some of the Salient features of Android are: Integrated Web Browser, MultiTasking, Multi-Touch, Multi-Language, Java & Flash Support, etc. Android has a large community of developers writing applications that extend the functionality of the devices. Developers write primarily in a customized version of Java. Apps can be downloaded from third-party sites or through online stores such as Google Play (formerly Android Market), the app store run by Google. As of February 2012 there were more than 450,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from the Android Market as of December 2011 exceeded 10 billion

- Various Mobile OSs: Android

The Versions of Android have been always been highly awaited as they always come up with major & minor additions to their functionalities.

Another reason for the Android versions to be famous is the Sweet naming conventions followed by Google:

Ver 1.0 First version Launch of the OS was on HTC G1.

Ver 1.1 Ver 1.5 Cupcake Ver 1.6 Donut Ver 2.0/2.1 Eclair Ver 2.2 Froyo Ver 2.3 Gingerbread Ver 3.0 Honeycomb Ver 4.0 IceCreamSandwich

Ver 5 JellyBeans To Be launched soon.

There have been many updates & enhancements in this journey & also have been any sub versions like 2.3.1 2.3.2 . 2.3.7.

- Various Mobile OSs: iOS

First released in June 2007 for iphone. Runs also on iPod Touch and iPad. It is a proprietary OS but also has some open source components. Soon after its first release Apple released a native SDK for third party application development. iOS is derived from Mac OS X, with which it shares the Darwin foundation, and is therefore a Unix operating system. In iOS, there are four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The current version of the operating system (iOS 5.1) uses roughly 770 megabytes of the device's storage, varying for each model.

Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. The response to user input is immediate and provides a fluid interface. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system and its multi-touch interface.

- Various Mobile OSs: iOS

Some of the salient features of iOS are home screen, Folders , notification center , game center , multitasking etc.

Versions of iOS:

iOS 1.x Initial Release

iOS 2.x
iOS 3.x

iOS 4.x
iOS 5.x

There have been many updates & enhancements in this journey & also have been any sub versions like 4.2.1 etc.

- Various Mobile OSs: BlackBerry OS

BlackBerry OS is a proprietary mobile operating system, developed by Research In Motion for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking and supports specialized input devices that have been adopted by RIM for use in its handhelds, particularly the trackwheel, trackball, and most recently, the trackpad and touchscreen. The BlackBerry platform is perhaps best known for its native support for corporate email, through MIDP 1.0 and, more recently, a subset of MIDP 2.0, which allows complete wireless activation and synchronization with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise email, calendar, tasks, notes, and contacts, when used with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The operating system also supports WAP 1.2. Third-party developers can write software using the available BlackBerry API classes, although applications that make use of certain functionality must be digitally signed.

- Various Mobile OSs: BlackBerry OS

One of the most famous services offered by BlackBerry is the BlackBerry Messenger or BBM which is a free message sending service provided you have the BlackBerry Services activated. Apps are widely available for this OS.

First released version 1.0 is for blackberry pager 580 in 1999 and version 3.6 is for blackberry Smartphone 5810 in 2002. Versions:

Ver 3.6
Ver 4.5 Ver 4.6 Ver 5.0 Ver 6.0 Ver 7.0 Ver 10.0 Soon to launched.

There have been many updates & enhancements in this journey & also have been any sub versions like 7.0.1 etc.

- Various Mobile OSs: Windows Phone OS

Is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones & Pocket PCs. It is based on the Windows CE kernel and first appeared as the Pocket PC 2000 operating system. It was designed to have features to desktop versions of Windows. and appearance somewhat similar

Third parties can develop software for Windows Mobile with no restrictions imposed by Microsoft. Some software applications can be purchased from Windows Marketplace for Mobile until it is discontinued on 9 May 2012.

In February 2010 Microsoft announced a new phone platform, Windows Phone, to supersede Windows Mobile, incompatible with Windows Mobile devices and software.
Windows Phone operating system is incompatible with devices designed for Windows Mobile as "Windows Mobile 6.x devices do not meet Windows Phone hardware requirements designed to ensure a consistent user and developer experience.

- Various Mobile OSs: Windows Phone OS

Windows Phone was launched in Europe, Singapore, and Australia on October 21, 2010, and in the US and Canada on November 8, 2010, with the rest of the world to follow in 2011. Microsoft decided to create a new mobile OS platform and officially announced Windows Phone Series. Microsoft has since renamed the operating system from Windows Phone Series to Windows Phone. Versions:

Pocket PC 2000 [Code Name=Rapier] Pocket PC 2002 [Code Name=Merlin] Windows Mobile 2003 [Code Name=Ozone] Windows Mobile 2003 SE Windows Mobile 5 [Code Name=Magneto] Windows Mobile 6 [Code Name=Crossbow] Windows Mobile 6.1 Windows Mobile 6.5 Succeeded By Windows Phone 1ST Version Window Phone 7 Windows Phone 7.5 Windows Phone 8 soon to be launched.

- Various Mobile OSs: Symbian OS

England based company established in 1998 Symbian Corporation is the licensing company that produced Symbian OS. Used by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Benq etc. Features : User Interface, Browser, Application Development. Versions:

Symbian-1: First version Symbian-2: Royalty Free version. Symbian-3: With New Features Graphics,2D,3D,UI_Improvement. Symbian-4: Updated version of Symbian-3. Symbian-5 Symbian-6.0 Symbian-7.0 Symbian-8.0, 8.1 Symbian-9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 Symbian Anna: with new Features ie.Virtual keyboard,New Browser. Symbian Belle: Updated version of Symbian-Anna only for three smart phones Nokia600,700,701.With 6-Homescree,Notification bar etc.

Market Share of Current Top OSs

In 2006, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and Bada did not yet exist and just 64 million smartphones were sold. Today, nearly 10 times as many smartphones are sold and the top mobile operating systems marketed as "smartphones" by market share are Android, Symbian, Apple iOS, RIM BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Bada. Note that these statistics only include operating systems marketed as "smartphones" (for example, they don't include Nokia's S40 operating system, which has larger market share). *All data has been compiled by Gartner.

Future Trends

With time the amount of customizations that are being got about by all the OSs is amazing. Eg. SIRI by Apple etc Many new Operating Systems are coming up which look promising like Tizen, Boot to Gecko, Windows 8 etc

References

wikipedia.org android.com developer.android.com

developer.apple.com
blackberryos.com

gsmarena.com
redmondpie.com