Mobile Operating System - Common Software Platforms

Common Software Platforms

See also: Comparison of Android devices, List of BlackBerry products, List of iOS devices, Comparison of Symbian devices, and List of Windows Phone devices

The most common mobile operating systems are:

Android from Google Inc. (free and open source)

Android was developed by a small startup company (Android Inc.) that was purchased by Google Inc. in 2005, which Google has continued to update the software. Android is a Linux-derived OS backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, Samsung, Motorola and eBay, to name a few), that forms the Open Handset Alliance. Released on November 5th 2007, the OS was well received from a number of developers upon its introduction. Android's releases prior to 2.0 (1.0, 1.5, 1.6) were used exclusively on mobile phones. Most Android phones, and some Android tablets, now use a 2.x release. Android 3.0 was a tablet-oriented release and does not officially run on mobile phones. The current Android version is 4.1. Android's releases are nicknamed after sweets or dessert items like Cupcake (1.5), Frozen Yogurt (2.2), Honeycomb (3.0), Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) and Jelly Bean (4.1). Most major mobile service providers carry an Android device. Since HTC Dream was introduced, there has been an explosion in the number 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%. On November 15, 2011, Android reached 52.5% of the global smartphone market share.

BlackBerry 10 from BlackBerry

BlackBerry 10 (previously BlackBerry BBX) the next generation platform for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets. In other words, there will be only one OS for both Blackberry smartphones and tablets going forward.

iOS from Apple Inc. (closed source, proprietary, on top of open source Darwin core OS)

The Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and second-generation Apple TV all use an operating system called iOS, which is derived from Mac OS X. Native 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.

S40 (Series40) from Nokia (closed source, proprietary)

Nokia uses S40 OS in their low end phones (aka feature phones). Over the years, more than 150 phone models have been developed running S40 OS. Since the introduction of S40 OS it has evolved from monochrome low resolution UI to full touch 256k color UI.

Windows Phone from Microsoft (closed source, proprietary)

On February 15th, 2010, Microsoft unveiled its next-generation mobile OS, Windows Phone. 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 Microsoft SkyDrive and Office, Xbox Music, Xbox Video, Xbox Live games and Bing, but also integrates with many other non-Microsoft services such as Facebook and Google accounts. The new software platform has received some positive reception from the technology press..

Windows 8 from Microsoft (closed source, proprietary)

Microsoft announced that Windows 8 will support tablet devices as well as PCs.

Windows RT from Microsoft (closed source, proprietary)

Microsoft announced Windows RT is an OS design for only tablets and can only run on ARM. This version also resembles Windows 8. Windows RT cannot run x86 programs. Apps can be only downloaded from the Windows Store. This version also has Microsoft Office 2013 preinstalled on every Windows RT device.