OS Wars - The Industry Insider

The Mobile industry is going through a churning phase. Some ppl in the industry feel the ground moving from under their foot. The last comment was an understatement at best. The amount of changes that are happening is impacting everyone starting from the end customer , to the platform makers ( THe OS Companies – android, Palm, iOS, Symbian, Meego, Palm, Windows ) , to the developers on the platform to the language used for development ( Java, Symbian, Flash, Python, Objective C ). Everyone is going through change.

The change hit hard when nokia announced practically the end of symbian foundation which was felled by the decision of Samsung and SE to pull out of the Symbian Foundation and subsequent announcement that they would stop making symbian phones. This was followed by the core member Nokia announcing that they are shutting down Symbaian Foundation ( well for all practical purposes).  So what does all these activities mean? Does that mean Nokia is doomed? Does that mean Symbian is over?

It all started 2 years back. Symbian and all other OS were under threat with the announcement that google acquired a unknown company called android and they announced they would be making a Oopen Source platorm based on Linux. The industry started polarising and insecurity hit everyone. Nokia responded by acquiring symbian and making the Symbian Foundation ( which was Open Source ). Samsung, Sony et al followed the industry leader Nokia and joined the much hyped SF which was slated to beat android in the coming days.  Well planned!!

But as of today, it all went wrong. Its left to Nokia to muse what went wrong and why? But one thing is clear. The era of symbian as a leading smartphone OS is over. This is not to say that symbian will have zero market share. Symbian may continue to have market share in the mid segment phones.  Nokia will survive selling low end phones and bank its hopes on the upcoming linux based platform Meego.

Lets now look at whats happening in the other side of Europe. The American OS makers(  iOS from Apple and Android from Google ) are gaining the market share fast. Apple is playing a different ball game by combining both HW and SW and selling it as a lifestyle product rather than a SW over hardware. Well done Apple.  Everyone knows how successfull they have been and needs no further explanation.As on date there are 300,000 Apps available on iStore and thats telling a lot. Android follows second with 100,000. Ovi and other stores have some apps but no where near any of these two biggies.

Android is shaping the future of the mobile industry. Lets look at what makes android tick. Why is it getting so much acceptance? Whats the magic?

First of all it is a pure play open source platfrom. Kernel is based on Linux.  Middleware is mostly linux. App development is based on Java.  But dont be fooled into believing its the same Java on desktop. Google has created its own version of Java. To give an example your class does not extends Object but rather Activity or 3 other types;) Interesting? Go read Android App development. Developing App on android is very easy. All you need is 200MB of diskspace and any OS running on your PC. There are fairly decent emulators available. And programming is Java which is easy to learn.  So that explains why app developers are flocking towards android.

But why are handset manufacturers gung ho about android. For one base porting is much simpler compared to other OS. All you need is someone with linxu BSP and device driver experience and a good hardware and in no time your Android is up and running. So the development cost is less on android. So all of them want to be on the bandwagon so that they can produce phones at cheaper cost and provide platform for hundreds of apps already available. The end user is the one who is really benefitting here. Thats android busniess model. Google benefits from it because it controlls the whole ecosystem. So it has the final say. Once they have killed all other OS ( if at all that happens ) they will play GOD.

So now you have a micromax guy making a android phone for 100$ and a samsung guy makeing a same spec android phone for 140$. Which one would you buy? End users would be spoilt for choice. Google is having the last laugh because competition would be within its OS. The prediction is by 2014 android will be the number Uno OS in mobile industry overtaking Symbian. Apple will be at number 2.

Microsoft has made a last ditch attempt at salvaging its reputation in the industry by launching windows 7 for mobile. It may look decent but does not have many takers. Prediction is they will  increase market share to 4% by 2012 and thats not a lot.Nokia is banking now on Qt on Meego to break into the top notch smart phone market. Time will only tell how successful it will be.  Blackberry and Palm are doing decent in their own customer base.

So al in all we are witnessing tremendously exciting times in the mobile industry and Android an iOS are ruling the roost.  Android has a bright future with they possibly breaking into Automotive entertainment, Home Infotainment  ( Your Washing machine and fridge may run android ) and practically all handheld devices  ( Dont trust me? Read this for starters: http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/28/nikon-debuts-android-powered-stereoscopic-picture-frame-2d-to-3/ ).