Electrosmart.Net

Mobile Operating Systems

There are three established mobile desktop operating systems:

Microsoft Windows Mobile
Research in Motion [RIM] - on Blackberry
Symbian - mainly used by Nokia

RIM's BlackBerry platform was the early leader in operating systems for mobile PDAs, however it was quickly overtaken by Microsoft Windows Mobile, which currently retains its lead.

Other Java operating systems are availabe for specialised purposes.

To a large extent, the acceptance of an OS depends upon the relationship between the vendors of the OS and the hardware.

Microsoft devices naturally use Windows Mobile
RIM has a strong relationship with Blackberry - the BlackBerry Connect Program is failing to manage OS upgrades, leading to many devices being sold with out of date software.

Blackberry RIM

Blackberry has developed a very strong Partner Program, with over 500 alliances with leading mobile application companies such as Atenna Software [field sales and service intelligence], Pyxis Mobile [financial services] and Wallace Wireless.

Many mobile application developers support BlackBerry as the superior platform due to it's relative strengths in:

Push technology
End-to-end encryption
Device-level network management
RIM's relationships

The push technology is the most attractive feature - pda users do not need to request key data and emails, instead they are proactively pushed to the device. BlackBerry is the only mobile platform that extends push capabilities to advanced applications. Microsofts pseudo push capability only extends to email, and even then it is not true push.

Microsoft

Microsoft mobile OS functionality has lagged to date.

Smart operators will ultimately choose the platform that offers the best functionality and the lowest cost of ownership.

Next: Mobile Applications