The big Mobile OS wars

1. Nokia and Intel 

The start of the year will bring us an unlikely team, the news is that Nokia and Intel has agreed to bring together their expertise to produce a new Mobile OS platform named MeeGo. The deal took place keeping in mind the ever rising sales figures of the Android and windows mobile phones. 

The first model based on this new platform is expected to be out in early February 2011, the success of the phone can also result in the end for Symbian based mobile phones which still have a long way to cover.

2. Microsoft

 

Microsoft R&D team is currently working on a new project named Menlo. It is believed to be a new look windows Mobile system that will roll all the features of Windows mobile and Zune into one singular Mobile operating system. The main task for the windows team is to replace the now common windows CE system with the new Windows NT system that is being designed to support these new features.

Microsoft' already has a new OS being launched in the market at the moment called the “Windows Mobile 7” so an attempt this early to already replace a product on the road to being launched does not make business sense but it seems that windows is trying to bring together the usefulness of a mobile phone with the functionality of a tablet PC. 

The current features of the new Phones based on the Menlo’s Windows NT platform is not clear, early indications and pictures of the prototype even shows a barometer attached to the head of the phone (see pic ). 

The tablet phone market is on the rise and new age mobile computing is going to be huge in the next decade so the steps taken by Windows think tank appear to be in the right direction, weather they achieve what they have set out for only time can tell…

3. Blackberry

RIM has developed a new OS for their premium range of Business Smart phone called the “BlackBerry 6”. It is the latest offering from the RIM research team to bring together the blackberry device and the touch screen mania. Blackberry 6 OS is expected to be launched in early part of 2011.

RIM is expecting that a touch screen friendly platform will help get customers base that shy’s away from the business phone image of Blackberry. Early indication suggests that the interface is easy to use and can appeal to all kinds of users.

 Here's a look of what's to expect...

 
1. Universal spotlight search

2. Interactive media menus

3. Social Networking options

4. RSS subscriber Feeds

5. Sliding interface

6. New messenger

7. Web posting

8. Improved web Surfing.

Although there is no fixed UK release date, but as more and more information starts to circulate in the market Rim is expected to launch the new Blackberry 6 pretty soon. 

The Final word

With all the big players getting down to business in the early part of this new year we can expect some very exciting times in the field of Mobile OS technologies current survey shows that by 2014, Android will be second only to Symbian in Mobile OS worldwide, with the two platforms accounting for nearly 60% of the mobile OS.

Recent market survey has shown that the U.S and U.K mobile phone market has moved on from the age old Symbian system into the new world of Android and iPhone systems. However rests of the countries are still predominantly using the open source Symbian systems that dominate the market at various price ranges, hence the market is open for business.