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Mobile

Battle of the SmartPhone OS

Now a days there are a plethora of options when you decide to buy a SmartPhone. Some are cheap and some are priced hefty. But when you deice to buy a SmartPhone, price is not the only thing that you need to consider. The most basic thing that every SmartPhone buyer needs to pay attention to is the Platform or the SmartPhone OS. This decides the usability of the Phone. Unlike PC the OS of a SmartPhone can not be changed whenever you wish, therefore OS selection need to be done very carefully.

smartphone-os

The operating system not only decides the user  Interface but also which apps you can run or how you can connect with your friends and a lot of other things. It’s like a boutique, where you go to buy clothes u will wear. Some boutique can have the best clothes in town with a wide range and variety, while some offer very few varieties of clothes. Some OS will offer you a wide range of apps to select from, while some offer a very small apps store, some are easily customizable while some are rigid.

Currently there are various Operating Systems available for SmartPhones like iOS(Apple), Android(Open Source and baked by Google), Blackberry OS(RIM), Windows Mobile 8(Microsoft). The basic difference in all these OS comes down to apps and customization. Android is user friendly and easily customizable while Apple’s iOS is rigid but it provides with a very varied and large app store. While these two leads the pack, Blackberry OS and Windows phone falls behind, but still they have their own personalized fun options. With introduction of Lumia range of Phone by Microsoft-Nokia partnership the Windows 8 OS is gaining some traction.

Apple iOS

iOS gives the feeling of elegance with Simplicity. The home screens come with a simple grid of icons which are moveable. The OS provides a very user friendly interface with simple, logical and consistent design. The built-in apps are a delight to use as they are really well designed, facebook and twitter integration is included in the latest version of OS, with the passbook virtual wallet, robust notifications, built-in video chats with other iOS users.

The primary delight to an iOS user will be the usage of the best app store in business. The third-party applications typically come to iOS first, it offers the best selection in books, movies or even the music store is really good. The problem with this iOS is the hardware compatibility, very few hardware can access all iOS 6.1 features. The OS though is very rigid and thus is not open to customization. The Apple’s iOS is no doubt one of the best OS currently present in the market.

Android OS

Android is Open Source and is backed by Google. Being Open Source one can find various flavors of Android like Samsung has customized it’s own version, LG it’s own. Android is the most widely used OS throughout the world, also it is one of the most compatible OS currently present in the market. This OS can be found on every range of phone; from the low-priced to the high-end phones. The most important feature of an android phone is its customization ability. The android interface offers a wide range of customizing options, you can arrange home screens, add live widgets. The Google’s play store, Android’s app store offers a wide range of apps for every mood.With introduction of Google Now in Android 4.1 it has created a new frontier.

Windows 8 Mobile

The erstwhile Windows Mobile has been replaced with Windows 8 Mobile which brings a seamless integration of Desktop and Mobile. Microsoft has partnered with Nokia and produce Lumia line of Windows 8 powered Mobile. Windows 8 has got one of the most creative interface in the market. It has the perfect balance of simplicity and customizability. The home screens consist of live tiles, which can be rearranged according to the user’s preference or priority of people or information he wants in front. It has the windows features and works brilliantly with Microsoft office, Microsoft exchange and Xbox live gaming. The drawback of Windows phone is fewer apps and hardware options, though it has its own apps and games. On the whole it is good, creatively different and fun to use OS.

Blackberry OS

Blackberry is generally regarded as n enterprise platform. So this OS has very less consumer appeal. Because of the market segment it caters to, it is the most secured OS. The most important feature of Blackberry OS is the Communication. The excellent email and Instant Messenger available in this platform are the default choice of corporate users. It is a God’s gift for those who are only interested in messaging and communication. It has a very cool interface which is easy to use and really helpful at times as everything u want is just a swipe away. Even though it has lots of apps of its own it still falls short of the big names in apps that are provided by Android or iOS.

 FeaturesApple iOS AndroidWindows 8Blackberry OS
InterfaceIt has a very user-friendly interface with simple, logical and consistent design It provides very smooth and fast UI response and thus it is also very easy to useIt has one of the most creative interface. It is perfect balance of simplicity and customizabilityIt comes with a normal yet creative user interface.
Interface detailsThe home screens come with simple grid of icons which are moveable The home screens has been left to be customized by the user himself with a wide range of widgetsThe home screen is a array of live tiles, which can be arranged according to user’s preference or priorityIt comes with an universal inbox which saves all your messages and texts together and thus are made available a swipe away 
 App store optionsIt provides one of the best and very large app store. It offers the best collection of books , movies etc. It also offers wide range of apps on its store, and is just behind the apple’s iOS.It has very fewer app options as compared to the leading apple and android OS.It does not have a good range of apps and is mostly good for communication.
CustomizabilityWhen it comes to customizability the apple’s OS is very rigid and does not offer much options for it.It offers one of the best customizability options and a lot of things are left to the user to customize and use. The windows phone also offers good options for customizability.The options for customizability are very few.
CompatibilityIt is not compatible with most of the devices.It has the best compatibility with hardware in the market and is thus seen with in a lot of phones. It also offers good compatibility with hardware.It is very rigid and is not compatible with most of the devices.
Best featuresOffers a large app store and the built in apps are designed well.Very simple and smooth UI with great customizability options.Very creative interface and a good compatibilityVery good OS for messaging and communication.

Introduction of New OS like Firefox OS and Ubuntu Mobile in recent future is going to make the battle more intense and in future only the fittest with highest flexibility will survive in the long run.

Categories
Mobile WinMo

Features and the future of Windows Phone 7

The race to produce the world’s best smartphone was and truly opened up with the release of the Windows Phone 7 OS in October last year. While there have been complaints from critics that the range of available apps is poor and that the first release of the new OS was lacking in basic multitasking capabilities, Windows really is stepping up to the plate and seems to be picking up quite a pace to catch up with and surpass the likes of Android and iOS.

At Mobile World Congress (MWC) held in February 2011, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a major update to Windows Phone 7 due towards the end of this year. The update will see the inclusion of a mobile version of Internet Explorer 9 that supports the same web standards (e.g. HTML5) and hardware-accelerated graphics as its PC counterpart.

By all accounts, this is going to be pretty exciting stuff – demonstrating the new browser during a keynote speech by Mr Ballmer at the MWC, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, Joe Belfiore, used a fish tank video to show off the updated OS’s speed and graphical capabilities. Mr Belfiore also compared the smooth motion of the tank’s 50 fish with the same video on an unnamed HTC model (surely not the HTC 7 Pro?), demonstrating just how fast and flawless the movement was with IE9 compared with its Safari (iPhone) counterpart.

While Belfiore didn’t really emphasize the fact that this version of IE9 wouldn’t be due until towards the end of this year, and while it was also indicative of the strength of Windows Phone 7’s competitive edge, it’s also very likely that Safari will be subject to similar standard of improvement, given Apple’s track record.

Even more exciting news, according to gottabemobile.com, Windows Phone 7 will also, thanks to their alliance with Nokia, be the forerunner of the smartphone OS industry by 2013. Having conducted research into the growth of the various leading smartphone OS giants such as iOS, Android and Blackberry, Pyramid Research’s senior analyst, Stela Bokun, prophesised that WP 7 will beat previous predictions that it will be ahead of the game by 2015 in two years.

Bokun proffered the idea that while Android’s primary strength has always been its availability with the various members of its Open Handset Alliance, WP 7’s availability on a variety of hardware besides Nokia will see WP 7 enjoy similar success. Bokun explained: “While Android will continue to grow beyond 2013, its growth will slow down compared to the skyrocketing surge in 2010 and 2011. Even though WP will maintain the leadership from 2013 through 2015, the battle with Android will be fierce going forward and will result in many overtakings and ties between the two operating systems going forward – all at the expense of iOS and BlackBerry, which will experience a losing streak.

“While RIM and Apple are powerful players in the smartphone market, their desire to limit their mobile operating systems to their own hardware has antagonized large manufacturers, such as Samsung, LG and Nokia, who have the capacity to enjoy the benefits of economies of scale and whose devices account for an overwhelming portion of the smartphone market.”

Expected Features in Windows Phone 7:

With regards to specifics about the updates, Microsoft revealed earlier this month that Bing on WP 7 will be subject to a major overhaul. Bing Navigation will be updated to give people faster access to common searches like ‘movies’ and ‘traffic’, while also providing a handy satellite navigation service (turn-by-turn voice navigation).

Not only that, but the Windows Phone Dev Podcast – which featured Windows Phone 7 director Brandon Watson as a guest – announced that a new function called Bing Audio will be featured in the new updates. If you’re familiar with Shazam, you’ll know that it’s able to recognise music and tell you that artists, track and album. Bing Audio will do just that, whilst also being able to sell users the tracks through Zune.

Next, Bing Vision – it’ll use your smartphone’s camera to read barcodes and do optical character recognition, while it may also offer support for augmented reality apps. Updates may also include voice-to-text for SMS messages, allowing users to send texts without the need to type. All in all, Windows Phone 7 has an exciting future ahead of it – and we can’t wait to try out the new updates. Watch this space.

Further reading:

Winning with Watson Windows Phone will beat Android Mobile IE 9 review Nokia and Microsoft partnership

Image courtesy of Expansys