Wednesday
May142008
How Many Mobile Operating Systems Do We Need?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 12:42PM
We are all familiar with the expressions: "it will get worse before it gets better" and "it is always darkest before the dawn." Maybe that will apply to mobile operating systems.
We now have at least seven major operating systems or platforms in play around the world: Blackberry, iPhone, J2ME, Linux, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile (in alphabetic order). Several of these have real strengths that make them contenders for the final round. Blackberry has a strong foothold in the enterprise; Apple has come on strong with iPhone in just one year; Nokia uses Symbian and is usually among the leaders; Microsoft keeps breathing new life into Windows Mobile, with version 9 due out next year; and now Verizon, a heavy hitter, has breathed new life into Linux with the announcement they would use this as their preferred operating system.
I would like to think the explosion of platforms results from the industry waking up and realizing the mobile internet is here and we need the right tools to seize the opportunity. This is creating unfortunate confusion in the near term. Application writers will need to choose which platforms to write for, and even then deal with the confusion about different devices having different screens, input, storage, processing power, etc. Advertisers and media content providers are also frustrated by the wide range of platforms, complicated by different media codecs and streaming rates.
My bet is the winner in all this will be web services, which users can reach from just about any device with a browser. There will be some page-formatting challenges for a while, and we will still see fights about which web standards the devices will support, such as Apple's refusal to support Flash. Once we get past some of these challenges, the focus on web services will benefit the users who will find it easier to access and manage their applications and data across the three screens (computer, mobile, TV), and will benefit the wireless carriers by doing more across the network rather than within the devices.
We now have at least seven major operating systems or platforms in play around the world: Blackberry, iPhone, J2ME, Linux, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile (in alphabetic order). Several of these have real strengths that make them contenders for the final round. Blackberry has a strong foothold in the enterprise; Apple has come on strong with iPhone in just one year; Nokia uses Symbian and is usually among the leaders; Microsoft keeps breathing new life into Windows Mobile, with version 9 due out next year; and now Verizon, a heavy hitter, has breathed new life into Linux with the announcement they would use this as their preferred operating system.
I would like to think the explosion of platforms results from the industry waking up and realizing the mobile internet is here and we need the right tools to seize the opportunity. This is creating unfortunate confusion in the near term. Application writers will need to choose which platforms to write for, and even then deal with the confusion about different devices having different screens, input, storage, processing power, etc. Advertisers and media content providers are also frustrated by the wide range of platforms, complicated by different media codecs and streaming rates.
My bet is the winner in all this will be web services, which users can reach from just about any device with a browser. There will be some page-formatting challenges for a while, and we will still see fights about which web standards the devices will support, such as Apple's refusal to support Flash. Once we get past some of these challenges, the focus on web services will benefit the users who will find it easier to access and manage their applications and data across the three screens (computer, mobile, TV), and will benefit the wireless carriers by doing more across the network rather than within the devices.
tagged Linux, Symbian, iPhone in Strategy, Technology, Web Services, advertising, mobility
Linux, Symbian, iPhone in Strategy, Technology, Web Services, advertising, mobility 
Reader Comments (3)
[...] will be a critical driver of the success of the mobile internet. They bridge the challenges of multiple platforms, they bridge the need to work across the three screens (computer, mobile, and TV), and they offer [...]
I agree "winner in all this will be web services"
I disagree "any device with a browser". This should browser engine - we have to stop thinking about a browser as the portal to the Internet. On mobiles we're going to see an explosion of widgets run standalone on the mobile desktop. No longer will you need to open a browser, enter the URL, type in yoru account info etc. etc. A little app will just be there always connected pulling back the info you want. Weather, flight info, nearest Starbucks. What's more your mobile will know where it is (GPS), know where your going (diary), etc. Mobility brings context to the Internet.
I also think we're going to see a number of cross platform RIA's take off on mobile and desktop - Siverlight and Air. Making it easier to port from Pc to mobile, and v.v. Nokia have also gone one step further in acquiring Qt to get natve xcross platform. This then makes the debates over which OS irrelevant.
David's comment is correct. Users can access web services via a browser or via some thin client on their devices. Either way results in an end-around for the carriers, outside their walled gardens. Oddly enough my Microsoft Outlook Exchange works like a web service, although few people naturally include it as an example; the email, contacts, calendar, and to-dos all live on a server somewhere, and my computer(s) and mobile devices pull down the information on a periodic basis. If I lost one of the devices, the information still lives on the server.