Mobile operating system

A mobile operating system, also referred to as mobile OS, is an operating system that operates a smartphone, tablet, PDA, or other mobile device. Modern mobile operating systems combine the features of a personal computer operating system with other features, including a touchscreen, cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS mobile navigation, camera, video camera, speech recognition, voice recorder, music player, near field communication and infrared blaster.

Mobile devices with mobile communications capabilities (e.g. smartphones) contain two mobile operating systems - the main user-facing software platform is supplemented by a second low-level proprietary real-time operating system which operates the radio and other hardware. Research has shown that these low-level systems may contain a range of security vulnerabilities permitting malicious base stations to gain high levels of control over the mobile device.

History

Mobile operating system milestones mirror the development of mobile phones and smartphones:

• 1973–1992 Mobile phones use embedded systems to control operation.
• 1993 The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, has a touchscreen, email and PDA features.
• 1996 Palm Pilot 1000 personal digital assistant is introduced with the Palm OS mobile operating system.
• 1996 First Windows CE Handheld PC devices are introduced.
• 1999 Nokia S40 OS is officially introduced along with the Nokia 7110
• 2000 Symbian becomes the first modern mobile OS on a smartphone with the launch of the Ericsson R380.
• 2001 The Kyocera 6035 is the first smartphone with Palm OS.
• 2002 Microsoft's first Windows CE (Pocket PC) smartphones are introduced.
• 2002 BlackBerry releases its first smartphone.
• 2005 Nokia introduces Maemo OS on the first internet tablet N770.
• 2007 Apple iPhone with iOS is introduced as an iPhone, "mobile phone" and "internet communicator."
• 2007 Open Handset Alliance (OHA) formed by Google, HTC, Sony, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Samsung, LG, etc.
• 2008 OHA releases Android 1.0 with the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) as the first Android phone.
• 2009 Palm introduces webOS with the Palm Pre. By 2012 webOS devices were no longer sold.
• 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.
• 2011 MeeGo the first mobile Linux, combining Maemo and Moblin, is introduced with the Nokia N9, a collaboration of Nokia, Intel and Linux Foundation
• In September 2011 Samsung, Intel and the Linux Foundation announced that their efforts will shift from Bada, MeeGo to Tizen during 2011 and 2012.
• In October 2011 the Mer project was announced, centered around an ultra-portable Linux + HTML5/QML/JavaScript Core for building products with, derived from the MeeGo codebase.
• 2012 Mozilla announced in July 2012 that the project previously known as "Boot to Gecko" was now Firefox OS and had several handset OEMs on board.
• 2013 Canonical announced Ubuntu Touch, a version of the Linux distribution expressly designed for smartphones. The OS is built on the Android Linux kernel, using Android drivers, but does not use any of the Java-like code of Android.
• 2013 BlackBerry released their new operating system for smartphones and tablets, BlackBerry 10.
• 2013 Google release latest version of Android Kitkat.
• 2014 Microsoft release Windows Phone 8.1 in February 2014.
• 2014 Apple release iOS 8 in September 2014.
• 2014 Google release Android Lollipop in November 2014.

Current software platforms

Android

See for this: Android

Android (based on the Linux Kernel) is from Google Inc.. It has the largest installed base worldwide on smartphones. Most of Android is free and open source, but a large amount of software on Android devices (such as Play Store, Google Search, Google Play Services, Google Music, and so on) are proprietary and licensed. Android's releases prior to 2.0 (1.0, 1.5, 1.6) were used exclusively on mobile phones. Android 2.x releases were mostly used for mobile phones but also some tablets. Android 3.0 was a tablet-oriented release and does not officially run on mobile phones. The current Android version is 4.4 Android's releases are nicknamed after sweets or dessert items like Cupcake (1.5), Donut (1.6), Eclair (2.0), Frozen Yogurt ("Froyo") (2.2), Ginger Bread (2.3), Honeycomb (3.0), Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), Jelly Bean (4.1), (4.2), (4.3) Kit Kat (4.4), and Lollipop (5.0). 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 second quarter 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. On September 2014 Android's global market share rose to 85%.

iOS

iOS is from Apple Inc.. It has second largest installed base worldwide on smartphones behind Android. It is closed source and proprietary and built on 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 11, 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. As of September 2014, iOS global market share was 11%.

Windows Phone

Windows Phone is from Microsoft. It is closed source and proprietary. It has third largest installed base on smartphones behind Android and iOS. On February 15, 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 OneDrive 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. Windows Phone devices are made primarily by Nokia, along with HTC, Samsung. As of September 2014, Windows Phone market share was 3%.

Firefox OS

Firefox OS is from Mozilla. It is open source and uses Mozilla Public License. According to Ars Technica, "Mozilla says that B2G is motivated by a desire to demonstrate that the standards-based open Web has the potential to be a competitive alternative to the existing single-vendor application development stacks offered by the dominant mobile operating systems."

Sailfish OS

Sailfish OS is from Jolla. It is partly open source and adopts GPL (core and middleware), however the user interface is closed source. After Nokia failed in 2011 with the MeeGo project most of the MeeGo team have left Nokia, and established Jolla as a company to use MeeGo and MER business opportunities. In 2012 Linux Sailfish OS based on MeeGo and using MER core distribution has been launched for public use. The first device, Jolla (mobile phone) was unveiled on 20 May 2013.

Tizen

Tizen is hosted by the Linux Foundation and support from the Tizen Association, guided by a Technical Steering Group composed of Intel and Samsung. Tizen is an operating system for devices including smartphones, tablets, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) devices, and smart TVs. It is an open source system that aims to offer a consistent user experience across devices. Tizen's main components are the Linux kernel and the WebKit runtime. According to Intel, Tizen “combines the best of LiMo and MeeGo." HTML5apps are emphasized, with MeeGo encouraging its members to transition to Tizen, stating that the "future belongs to HTML5-based applications, outside of a relatively small percentage of apps, and we are firmly convinced that our investment needs to shift toward HTML5." Tizen will be targeted at a variety of platforms such as handsets, tablets, smart TVs and in-vehicle entertainment. On May 17, 2013, Tizen released version 2.1, code-named Nectarine.

Ubuntu Touch OS

Ubuntu Touch OS is from Canonical Ltd.. It is open source and uses GPL.

Blackberry

BlackBerry 10 (based on the QNX OS) is from BlackBerry. As a smart phone OS, it is closed source and proprietary. It is used mostly by Government employees. BlackBerry 10 is the next generation platform for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets. All phones and tablets are manufactured by Blackberry itself. One of the dominant platforms in the world, it's global market share has been reduced to less than 1% in late 2014.

Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit (based on Windows 8.1) is from Microsoft. As a laplet OS, it is open source and proprietary.

Google Android

Google Android is a combination of Android OS and Google.

Nintendo 3DS OS

Nintendo 3DS OS is a tablet computer OS. Nintendo 2DS is a handheld game console & a tablet computer.

Discontinued software platforms

Symbian

The Symbian platform was developed by Nokia for certain models of smartphones. It is proprietary software. The operating system was discontinued in 2012, although a slimmed down version for basic phones was still developed until July 2014. Microsoft officially shelved the platform in favor of Windows Phone after the acquisition of Nokia.

Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile was from Microsoft. It was closed source and proprietary. The Windows CE operating system and 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 in February 2007. It was criticized for having a user interface which is not optimized for touch input by fingers; instead, it is more usable with a stylus. However, unlike iOS, it supports both touch screen and physical keyboard configurations. Windows Mobile's market share sharply declined to just 5% in Q2 of 2010. Microsoft phased out the Windows Mobile OS to focus on Windows Phone.

Palm OS

Palm OS/Garnet OS was from Access Co. It is closed source and proprietary. webOS was introduced by Palm in January 2009 as the successor to Palm OS with Web 2.0 technologies, open architecture and multitasking capabilities.

webOS

webOS was from LG, although some parts are open source. webOS is a proprietary mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel, initially developed by Palm, which launched with the Palm Pre. After being acquired by HP, two phones (the Veer and the Pre 3) and a tablet (the TouchPad) running webOS were introduced in 2011. On August 18, 2011, HP announced that webOS hardware was to be discontinued but would continue to support and update webOS software and develop the webOS ecosystem. HP released webOS as open source under the name Open webOS, and plans to update it with additional features. On February 25, 2013 HP announced the sale of WebOS to LG Electronics, who planned to use the operating system for its "smart" or Internet-connected TVs. However HP retained patents underlying WebOS as well as cloud-based services such as the App Catalog.

Maemo

Maemo was a platform developed by Nokia for smartphones and Internet tablets. It is open source and GPL, based on Debian GNU/Linux and draws much of its GUI, frameworks and libraries from the GNOME project. It uses the Matchbox window manager and the GTK-based Hildon as its GUI and application framework.

MeeGo

MeeGo was from non-profit organization The Linux Foundation. It is open source and GPL. At the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia and Intel both unveiled 'MeeGo', a mobile operating system that combined Moblin and Maemo to create an open-sourced experience for users across all devices. In 2011 Nokia announced that it would no longer pursue MeeGo in favor of Windows Phone. Nokia announced the Nokia N9 on June 21, 2011 at the Nokia Connection event in Singapore. LG announced its support for the platform.

LiMo

LiMo was from the LiMo Foundation. LiMo Foundation launched LiMo 4 on February 14, 2011. LiMo 4 delivers middleware and application functionality, including a flexible user interface, extended widget libraries, 3D window effects, advanced multimedia, social networking and location-based service frameworks, sensor frameworks, multi-tasking and multi-touch capabilities. In addition, support for scalable screen resolution and consistent APIs means that the platform can deliver a consistent user experience across multiple device types and form factors.

Customer satisfaction

According to a Readers' Choice Awards survey conducted by PC Magazine in 2013, Android and Windows Phone customers gave their phones a rating of 8.9 on a 0 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied) scale, an improvement of 0.3 and 0.6 points respectively. Android received an 8.9 (one of the highest ratings to date for an operating system) followed by iOS (7.3).

The biggest reasons given by readers when asked why they chose their mobile phones are as follow: operating system (72%) and 4G capability (51%) for Android, quality of email experience (83%) for Blackberry, availability of apps (63%) for iOS and operating system (48%) for Windows Phone (81%).

Market share

In 2006, Android, iOS and Windows Phone did not exist and just 64 million smartphones were sold. In 2014, more than a billion smartphones were sold and global market share was 85% for Android, 11% for iOS, 3% for Windows Phone and remaining 1% for all other platforms. 

See table below for source data

Gartner: World-Wide Smartphone Sales (Thousands of Units)
Quarter	Windows Mobile	RIM	Symbian	iOS	Android	Bada	Windows Phone	Other	Total Smartphones	Total Phones
2013 Q4		1,807		50,224	219,613		8,534	1,994	282,171	490,342
2013 Q3		4,401	458	30,330	205,023	633	8,912	475	250,232	455,642
2013 Q2		6,180	631	31,900	177,898	838	7,408	472	225,326	435,158
2013 Q1		6,219	1,349	38,332	156,186	1,371	5,989	600	210,046	425,822
2012 Q4		7,333	2,569	43,457	144,720	2,684	6,186	713	207,662	472,076
2012 Q3		8,947	4,405	23,550	122,480	5,055	4,058	684	169,179	427,730
2012 Q2		7,991	9,072	28,935	98,529	4,209	4,087	863	153,686	419,008
2012 Q1		9,939	12,467	33,121	81,067	3,842	2,713	1,243	144,392	419,108
2011 Q4		13,185	17,458	35,456	75,906	3,111	2,759	1,167	149,042	476,555
2011 Q3		12,701	19,500	17,295	60,490	2,479	1,702	1,018	115,185	440,502
2011 Q2		12,652	23,853	19,629	46,776	2,056	1,724	1,051	107,740	428,661
2011 Q1	982	13,004	27,599	16,883	36,350	1,862	1,600	1,495	99,775	427,846
2010 Q4	3,419	14,762	32,642	16,011	30,801	2,027	0	1,488	101,150	452,037
2010 Q3	2,204	12,508	29,480	13,484	20,544	921		1,991	81,133	417,086
2010 Q2	3,059	11,629	25,387	8,743	10,653	577		2,011	62,058	367,987
2010 Q1	3,696	10,753	24,068	8,360	5,227			2,403	54,506	359,605
2009 Q4	4,203	10,508	23,857	8,676	4,043			2,517	53,804	347,103
2009 Q3	3,260	8,523	18,315	7,040	1,425			2,531	41,093	308,895
2009 Q2	3,830	7,782	20,881	5,325	756			2,398	40,972	286,122
2009 Q1	3,739	7,534	17,825	3,848	575			2,986	36,507	269,120
2008 Q4	4,714	7,443	17,949	4,079	639			3,319	38,143	314,708
2008 Q3	4,053	5,800	18,179	4,720	0			3,763	36,515	308,532
2008 Q2	3,874	5,594	18,405	893				3,456	32,221	304,722
2008 Q1	3,858	4,312	18,400	1,726				4,113	32,408	294,283
2007 Q4	4,374	4,025	22,903	1,928				3,536	36,766	330,055
2007 Q3	4,180	3,192	20,664	1,104				3,612	32,752	291,142
2007 Q2	3,212	2,471	18,273	270				3,628	27,855	272,604
2007 Q1	2,931	2,080	15,844					4,087	24,943	259,039

See table below for source data

Gartner: World-Wide Smartphone Sales (% of Smartphones / % of All phones)
Year	Windows Mobile	RIM	Symbian	iOS	Android	Bada	Windows Phone	Other Smartphones	Total Smartphones
2013		1.9% / 1.0%		15.6% / 8.3%	78.4% / 42.0%		3.2% / 1.7%	0.9% / 0.5%	100.0% / 57.6%
2012		5.1% / 2.0%	4.2% / 1.6%	19.1% / 7.4%	66.2% / 25.7%	2.3% / 0.9%	2.5% / 1.0%	0.5% / 0.2%	100.0% / 38.8%
2011	0.2% / 0.1%	10.9% / 2.9%	18.7% / 5.0%	18.9% / 5.0%	46.5% / 12.4%	2.0% / 0.5%	1.7% / 0.4%	1.0% / 0.3%	100.0% / 26.6%
2010	4.1% / 0.8%	16.6% / 3.1%	37.3% / 7.0%	15.6% / 2.9%	22.5% / 4.2%	1.2% / 0.2%	0.0% / 0.0%	2.6% / 0.5%	100.0% / 18.7%
2009	8.7% / 1.2%	19.9% / 2.8%	46.9% / 6.7%	14.4% / 2.1%	3.9% / 0.6%			6.1% / 0.9%	100.0% / 14.2%
2008	11.8% / 1.3%	16.6% / 1.9%	52.4% / 6.0%	8.2% / 0.9%	0.0% / 0.0%			11.0% / 1.3%	100.0% / 11.4%
2007	12.0% / 1.3%	9.6% / 1.0%	63.5% / 6.7%	2.7% / 0.3%				12.2% / 1.3%	100.0% / 10.6%

See table below for source data

IDC: World-Wide Smartphone Shipments (Millions of Units ‖ % of Smartphones)
Quarter	Android	Android	iOS	iOS	Symbian	Symbian	BlackBerry OS	BlackBerry	Linux	Linux	Windows Phone	Windows Phone	Other	Other	Total
2014 Q2	255.3	84.73%	35.2	11.68%	-	0.00%	1.5	0.50%	-	0.00%	7.4	2.46%	1.9	0.63%	301.3
2014 Q1	233.4	83.06%	43.7	15.55%	-	0.00%	1.4	0.50%	-	0.00%	7.6	2.70%	1.7	0.60%	281.0
2013 Q4	226.1	78.07%	51.0	17.61%	-	0.00%	1.7	0.59%	-	0.00%	8.8	3.04%	2.0	0.69%	289.6
2013 Q3	211.6	81.04%	33.8	12.95%	-	0.00%	4.5	1.72%	-	0.00%	9.5	3.64%	1.7	0.65%	261.1
2013 Q2	187.4	79.27%	31.2	13.20%	0.5	0.21%	6.8	2.88%	1.8	0.76%	8.7	3.68%	0.0	0.00%	236.4
2013 Q1	162.1	74.98%	37.4	17.30%	1.2	0.56%	6.3	2.91%	2.1	0.97%	7.0	3.24%	0.1	0.05%	216.2
2012 Q4	159.8	70.15%	47.8	20.98%	2.7	1.19%	7.4	3.25%	3.8	1.67%	6.0	2.63%	0.3	0.13%	227.8
2012 Q3	136.0	75.10%	26.9	14.85%	4.1	2.26%	7.7	4.25%	2.8	1.55%	3.6	1.99%	0.0	0.00%	181.1
2012 Q2	104.8	68.05%	26.0	16.88%	6.8	4.42%	7.4	4.81%	3.5	2.27%	5.4	3.51%	0.1	0.06%	154.0
2012 Q1	89.9	59.03%	35.1	23.05%	10.4	6.83%	9.7	6.37%	3.5	2.30%	3.3	2.17%	0.4	0.26%	152.3
2011 Q4	83.4	52.85%	36.3	23.00%	18.3	11.60%	12.8	8.11%	3.8	2.41%	2.4	1.52%	0.8	0.51%	157.8
2011 Q3	67.7	57.32%	16.3	13.80%	17.3	14.65%	11.3	9.57%	3.9	3.30%	1.4	1.19%	0.1	0.08%	118.1
2011 Q2	50.8	46.86%	20.4	18.82%	18.3	16.88%	12.5	11.53%	3.3	3.04%	2.5	2.31%	0.6	0.55%	108.4
2011 Q1	36.7	36.12%	18.6	18.31%	26.4	25.98%	13.8	13.58%	3.2	3.15%	2.6	2.56%	0.3	0.30%	101.6

Kantar Worldpanel: ComTech Smartphone OS market share (% of smartphones)
Region	USA				EU5				China				Australia
Quarter	iOS	Android	RIM	WP	iOS	Android	RIM	WP	iOS	Android	RIM	WP	iOS	Android	RIM	WP
2014 Q2	31.5%	62.0%	-	3.8%	15.3%	74.0%	-	8.8%	12.8%	84.3%	-	0.9%	25.5%	68.0%	-	5.3%
2014 Q1	35.9%	57.6%	0.7%	5.3%	19.2%	70.7%	1.1%	8.1%	17.9%	80.0%	0.1%	1.0%	33.1%	57.3%	1.0%	6.9%
2013 Q4	43.9%	50.6%	0.4%	4.3%	18.5%	68.6%	1.5%	10.3%	19.0%	78.6%	0.1%	1.1%	35.2%	57.2%	0.8%	5.2%
2013 Q3	35.9%	57.3%	1%	4.6%	14.6%	71.9%	2.3%	9.8%	13.8%	81.1%	0.1%	2.5%	32.9%	55.3%	1.3%	9.3%
2013 Q2	42.5%	51.5%	1.1%	4%	18.5%	69.8%	2.2%	6.9%	24.7%	67.8%	0.1%	4.9%	27.6%	64.6%	0.3%	5.3%
2013 Q1	43.7%	49.3%	0.9%	5.6%	19.4%	68.8%	2.7%	6.5%	24.6%	69.4%	0.3%	2%	31%	61.7%	0.5%	4.1%
2012 Q4[	51.2%	44.2%	1.1%	2.6%	25.6%	61.1%	4%	5.4%	21.9%	72.5%	0%	0.9%	38.4%	55.8%	0.5%	2.8%
2012 Q4	35.7%	57.5%	2.1%	2.9%	16.5%	67.1%	5.9%	4.9%	18.6%	65.2%	0.1%	5.7%	23.2%	67.1%	0.6%	4.9%
2012 Q2	39.2%	52.6%	4%	2.9%	16.2%	64.5%	7%	4.7%	26.7%	60.7%	0%	6.2%	27.5%	60.8%	1.3%	5.2%
2012 Q1	44.6%	47.9%	2.6%	3.7%	20.4%	58.1%	8.1%	4.1%					33.8%	52.9%	0.8%	3.3%

Mobile internet traffic share

As of November 2013, mobile data usage showed 55.17% of mobile data traffic to be from iOS, 33.89% from Android, 4.49% from Java ME (Nokia S40), 4.12% from Symbian, 1.65% from Windows Phone and 1% from BlackBerry. Internet Explorer Mobile can be switched to “Desktop view” by users, which identifies devices as Internet Explorer 9.0 on Windows 7, causing case mobile usage to be excluded in these statistics.

Last updated on 31 October 2014 at 17:04.