Smart Phone OS Issues

There are a number of operating systems that are at the heart of smart phones. 

Symbian's OS - Several major cell phone makers have adopted Symbian's operating system (new OS code named Pearl) for their smart phones - Motorola, Nokia, Philips NV, Psion Inc., Sanyo, Sony and Ericsson. Symbian has incorporated Nokia's browser into their OS. It incorporates WAP, Bluetooth and Java. - so called holy trinity of de-facto standards.

Symbian has a specialized version 6.0 of its OS that is aimed at PDA type devices with keyboard and integration with e-,mail, SMS and wireless protocols. 

There are two reference platforms - One code-named Crystal for phones with color screens and other Quartz for PDA/phone combinations.

Go to Symbian site for version 6.0 SDK (software Development Kit) information.

Microsoft's Stinger initiative - This is essentially a new OS from Microsoft aimed at cell phone vendors - essentially an OS based on MS Mobile Explorer microbrowser. 

Microsoft gained acceptance of Stinger in late 2000 when Samsung and VoicsStream Wireless announced development of GPRS smart phones based on Stinger.

For Smart phone products, go to  Product Directory. 

MobileInfo Advisor & Comments:  We believe that choice of OS by device manufacturers for smartphones should be based on ultimate functionality of the device and its integration with voice and data applications. Generally speaking, this choice is made by well-educated technology architects. The only advice we can give is that evaluation team should consist of people trained in both camps - traditional cellular voice experts and wireless data applications. It is also our belief that variety and complexity of future data applications warrant that careful consideration should be given to this factor.

As far as smart phone application developers are concerned, they should plan to develop applications for all major platforms - there will be phones based on more than OS.