Infinite Path

The mobile operating system market is a complicated area. Apple and Blackberry have had great success with their operating systems, Microsoft has had many issues and have rather neglected the mobile space and Nokia – once the market leader in mobile devices – has lost out massively to everyone.

In the past, the operating system has not been so important to mobile phone users. It was more about the device, rather than the operating system. Mobile phones were not looked at like computers and as such, the operating system wasn’t part of the purchase decision when looking at buying mobile phones. Now though, the device is becoming secondary in many cases. Users are bothered about the operating system and make many of their judgements based on what they use for their personal computers. Apple, for instance, has built up a loyal following and user-base for its Mac operating systems and when they launched the iphone, people were wanting it not just because of its appealing aesthetics, but also because they trusted that Apple would know how to incorporate a reliable and useable running system into the device.

There are now a number of operating systems available for mobile devices. One of the new ones is Android. Android is an open-source operating system which can be incorporated onto many devices. Motorola is now looking at using the system on some of their new mobile phones as a way of trying to compete with Apple and Blackberry.

Microsoft’s new Windows Phone software can also run on any device so it will be interesting to see which will prove to be most popular between Android and Windows.

Even though the likes of Microsoft and other mobile phone manufacturers are now taking action in the operating system market, obviously Apple and RIM have quite a head start and will no doubt have other tricks up their sleeves to counteract any headway the others will potentially make.