Mobile Operating Software – Remembering the Past

Over the years, Android has become a staple operating system for consumers. It feels like only yesterday I had was booting up my Symbian OS to surf the web using WAP. Windows Mobile would see a slight rise in the later years of 2007 but would soon be overtaken by the Blackberry cloud. Apple’s iOS would also enter the fray around this time, but the market would still see market share dominance from Symbian OS. Android would also enter the mix shortly after and it would very much be starting from the very bottom. The triangular battle between Symbian, Blackberry and iOS would carry on for a while longer. 2010 Would see android begin to rise the ranks and knock down other competitors at an alarming pace, even dethroning Symbian in early 2011. It was also around this time that iOS had managed to overtake Blackberry OS and continue its growth beyond Q4 of the year. Symbian and blackberry would begin to fade, the former being phased out entirely in 2014. It would become the age of Android and iOS.

Symbian OS though gone, will be remembered. It was very much the default OS major mobile manufactures would opt for. User interfaces on handsets would very and for those who have ever owned a Nokia smartphone will be familiar with the S60 UI. Unlike android, the different flavours would not retain application interoperability and would require specific builds to work on specific handsets. The mobile application ecosystem is vastly different now but certainly for the better. I have fond memories of my legacy handsets and was very aware of Android’s movement but did not take the plunge until 2011 when purchasing a Samsung Galaxy S2. It was a breath of fresh air to say the least.

Prior to jumping aboard the Android Express, the phase of Blackberry would be something of a steppingstone for users wanting a little more from their device. Blackberry Messenger (BBM), email and web access along with an emphasis on privacy and security. Businesspeople all over would flock to Blackberry and younger consumers would also adopt BBM as the new MSN messenger for IM chat needs. Apple and Blackberry would duke it out head to head while Symbian reigned supreme but attitude towards smartphones would eventually change as better hardware and software became available. In a world where people expect more from their phones, it would be Apple and Google that would remain as leading operating systems today.

Android holds close to 90% of market share today and other mobile operating systems (aside from iOS) are no longer to be found. It is very much the king of smartphones and manufactures have leveraged various flavours of the operating system on their flagship phones. Community support has grown over the years and the Open source model has been one of the greatest assets. While proprietary components are supplied to license devices it is very much to the advantage of consumers to have access to a secure (subjective) ecosystem of applications such as Google Play. It is of no surprise that any flagship phone shipping out without support of Google Apps is a major downer for those needing access to its services and ecosystem. Huawei’s P30 Pro has been all the buzz for various reasons, and I’ll be taking a closer look at the situation in my next post.