Mobile OS Wars
There is a lot of buzz surrounding the upcoming release of the Palm Pre smartphone. It is being touted as the next in a long list of iPhone killers, only people say this one might actually best the device from Apple. Who's to say which is really the best, I'm sure everyone will argue about it ad nauseum. It seems the smartphone choice is a very personal one and if you asked 5 people for their opinions, you're likely to get 7 different answers.
The increasing discussion about smartphone preference among friends and colleagues has me wondering what really impacts people's choices. I think we can all agree that marketing and branding play a pivotal role, but the real meat of what makes people happy with their phone is usability. Aside from the ergonomics aspect, like screen and keyboard, people care about what they can do with their phone. What's the thing that fosters all those fancy applications and functions? It's the OS, of course.
For a phone to work well, the OS has to offer a good platform. The article linked above compares several of the mobile versions that are floating around the market but it probably deserves a much larger discussion. Unlike computers, which has one OS dominating most of the market, mobile devices seems to be diversifying at a blistering pace. Even if you're not a techno-geek, PalmOS, Blackberry OS, iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, Android and webOS are all things you've probably heard talked about. Most people really don't think about what OS their phone is running, but if you want your Internet Life in your pocket, it really is the make or break component. If you need any evidence that it matters, consider that Google is very closely tied to the existence of Android. Google rarely gets involves in things that aren't going to be a part of our daily life in a few years (if they aren't now) so... yeah.
The increasing discussion about smartphone preference among friends and colleagues has me wondering what really impacts people's choices. I think we can all agree that marketing and branding play a pivotal role, but the real meat of what makes people happy with their phone is usability. Aside from the ergonomics aspect, like screen and keyboard, people care about what they can do with their phone. What's the thing that fosters all those fancy applications and functions? It's the OS, of course.
For a phone to work well, the OS has to offer a good platform. The article linked above compares several of the mobile versions that are floating around the market but it probably deserves a much larger discussion. Unlike computers, which has one OS dominating most of the market, mobile devices seems to be diversifying at a blistering pace. Even if you're not a techno-geek, PalmOS, Blackberry OS, iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, Android and webOS are all things you've probably heard talked about. Most people really don't think about what OS their phone is running, but if you want your Internet Life in your pocket, it really is the make or break component. If you need any evidence that it matters, consider that Google is very closely tied to the existence of Android. Google rarely gets involves in things that aren't going to be a part of our daily life in a few years (if they aren't now) so... yeah.
Labels: blackberry, iphone, mobile, os, palm pre
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