Up until recently, we had to pay a lot in order to equip ourselves with a camera, a music player and computer. Today, using one cellular device it's possible to photograph, listen, watch, read, receive and send messages and files in a relatively simple way (as devices such as Nokia95 or Sony Ericsson C902 enable). But not everyone takes pleasure in modernisation: The innovations penetrate slowly into the less affluent layers of the public for different reasons: practical economy and a Luddite reaction to advanced technology.
Competing for the Heart of Cellular
In order to speed up the process there is a need for the simplest user interface and operating system. In the past, the user had a simple option: he had to choose between two "open" operating systems (meaning, which can have external programs added to them) for phones and palm computers: Microsoft's Palm and Windows Mobile.
Today, the competition is tougher. Many competitors can be found for operating systems of cellular devices. If in the past they were identified with a certain brand, today most of the operating systems (except those of Blackberry and iPhone) suit many devices from many models.
In this situation, the cellular producers face a big problem: on the one hand, they want a unique product of their own: on the other hand they don't want to invest their money in operating systems that may be drawn up as failures.
In evidence, the Samsung Company: it produces devices which are operated using Symbian and Windows as well; Mobile is also due to launch a device by the end of the year which will support Google's new operating system "Android".
Nokia's Purchase
The iPhone has changed the rules of the game. There's one thing you can't take from Steve Jobs' baby: no other device has succeeded as well as he has in combining simplicity and convenience in one package which have characterized Apple's operating System. Only until after the iPhone appeared the cellular producers understood just how much the users yearn for simplicity. They began to invest great budgets in an attempt to bring the most state of the art device to the consumer – which would also be convenient and easy to use.
In the end of June the gigantic Finnish cellular manufacturer Nokia purchased the shares of the Symbian Company in order to gain control over the enterprise. Symbian is in fact the most common operating system, which is installed in about two thirds of the smartphones in the world. The combination between the most popular operating system and Nokia's substantial market share (40% of all devices sold in the world are produced by it) may acquire the company a significant advantage in the ongoing war over operating systems.
In the beginning of 2009 Microsoft is supposed to release its new operating system in version 7. Over the years Windows Mobile has suffered from the image of an awkward and complicated system, but Microsoft promises that the new version will bring a real change. First pictures that have reached the internet show that it's hard to miss the resemblance to Apple's competing system.
But with all due respect to the oldest operating systems in the market (and they are respected), one of the most interesting and most talked about projects of 2008 is without doubt Google's new and intriguing operating system, Android. The system which was snappily introduced last winter in the course of the cellular exhibition in Barcelona is being materialized these days and is bound to hit the stores even before the end of this year. The HTC Company has already stated that the first device that will operate with Android will be its own.
Open For All
In the beginning of the cellular age the vast majority of users preferred "closed" operating systems, those which arrive from the cellular producer's factory and can have almost no programs installed in them or adapt them for personal use. Today people are beginning to understand the advantages of open operating systems. They enable us to add new functions to the portable device, by installing small and simple applications. Furthermore, open systems enable the producers to design the interface and the type of use for the device as they wish.
But along side the many advantages the open operating systems have a downside: installing applications from the internet may damage the device's operating system, therefore it's important to prevent rather than to cure: only install files from a reliable source and see to it that an antivirus is installed on portable phones and palms.
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