Symbian is the market leader, running on 100 million smartphones worldwide. It's the most network-friendly of the bunch, able to switch among Wi-Fi, 3G, and 2.5G networks, depending on user preferences.
In the United States, RIM's BlackBerry and Microsoft's Windows Mobile are the market leaders, competing for business users who want wireless e-mail automatically pushed to their devices and on-the-go access to enterprise apps. But the two are quite different. RIM offers the best combination of mobile phone, server software, push e-mail, and security from a single vendor. Windows Mobile doesn't need extra middleware for wireless e-mail when used with Exchange Server 2003. PC users find the transition to Windows Mobile smartphones simple, since Windows Mobile shares features like the Start menu from the full-fledged Windows operating system. Because the learning curve is short, training costs are minimal.
Mobile Linux means lower development costs for smartphone makers, since there are no licensing fees, and offers an ecosystem of related software, such as development tools and middleware. No industry standard mobile Linux exists yet, though two in development are due this year. It remains to be seen if the industry will rally around one or both.
Applications Count
When choosing mobile operating systems for their companies, IT managers must consider application availability. The Palm OS supports more than 29,000 apps, Windows Mobile about 20,000, and the BlackBerry 1,500 business apps plus thousands of consumer applications.
Which leads us to Mac OS X, which will power Apple's iPhone, due midyear. Apple says its device will give users access to "true desktop-class applications and software," includ-ing e-mail and text messaging, Apple's Safari browser, widgets, calendar, and address book. Yet it's unclear how many third-party applications will become available for the iPhone or how IT departments would manage applications for iPhone-carrying employees. OS X may be the most interesting of the smartphone operating systems--but it's also got the most to prove.
