What is Mobile Operating System?

An Operating system is system software that acts as a link between the user and machine and provides an easy-to-use interface to the user. It helps in coordinating computer hardware and software.

A Mobile Operating System is an operating system that is specifically designed for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, etc. to perform different types of tasks and run mobile programs.

Many mobile OS is present in the market like Windows Mobile Operating System, Android operating system, Apple IOS, Symbian OS, Rim’s Blackberry, etc. in which Android OS is based on Linux Operating System and Apple iOS is based on Unix-like operating system.

Types of Mobile Operating Systems

Some of the top mobile operating systems are given below:

Android Operating System

Android is a mobile operating software developed by many companies including Google. It was sponsored and launched commercially by Google. It is an open-source operating system initially released on September 23, 2008. It is based on Linux Kernel. It was designed specifically for smartphones and some other embedded devices. Android is written in C for its core part but most of its UI is written in Java. However, most of the android applications are written in Java.

Android Operating System is currently one of the best-selling and most widely used mobile operating systems since 2011. Android operating system was first developed by a software company located somewhere in Silicon Valley named Android Inc. Then, it was later on acquired by Google in 2005. The source code of Android is released in an open-source format to provide an open platform for carriers, OEMs, and developers to use in order to make their innovative ideas a reality. Android is released as “open” but still, it is packed with proprietary software (software that is deemed within the free and open source software to be non-free) when sold on handset devices.

Apple iOS

iOS is also known as iPhone OS and is an exclusive mobile operating system designed specifically for Apple devices which was created and developed by Apple Inc. It is proprietary software in which very few components of it are made open source. It is a Unix-like operating system that is based on the ARM variant of Darwin derived from BSD, macOS. iOS is built in C, C++, and Objective C until recently Apple developed its own language, Swift, based on the combination of C, C++, and Objective C. It was designed exclusively for Apple’s touch screen devices like iPhone, iPad, and iPod which support commands through direct manipulation. It uses several gestures such as tapping, pinching, and swapping making it more interactive and easy to use for the users.

Apple iOS is currently one of the safest and most widely used mobile operating systems in the world. It is not supported by any devices other than Apple making it exclusive and increasing the demand for Apple products. It was first released in 2007 for the first generation of iPhone then later on it started getting used in iPad and iPod too. Major versions of iOS are still getting released every year with new upgrades and more security. It comes with some pre-installed apps which are of course developed by Apple itself like Facetime, Apple wallet, Apple Health, Apple Music, Apple Appstore, etc. We can use Apple Appstore to access more applications on our phones where each application is made available to users through high-security checks. They always put security as their top priority and keep updating their guidelines if any bug comes out. Apple has updated its guidelines for the use of custom prompts used by many applications on the name encouraging users to leave reviews for their apps. It has enabled many advancements over the years through the flow of all generations of iPhones impacting both iPhone and non-iPhone users. Apple did not intend to release a Software Development Kit initially, because they planned to build web apps instead of developing third-party applications for iOS which felt more secure at that time but were a little impractical. They failed to develop it which led apple to change its mind. In 2007, we heard the announcement to release Software Development Kit for developers, which was finally released on March 2008.

BlackBerry OS

BlackBerry OS is a mobile operating system developed by Blackberry Limited located in Canada for its series of Blackberry Smartphones and other handheld devices. Its core code was written in C++ with medium-level security and was discontinued after android got popular due to its amazing features and easy-to-use interface. BlackBerry OS is a multitasking proprietary mobile operating system designed by Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry Devices. It was initially released on January 1999 and the first version to support Java applications was released in March 2002. Blackberry OS was similar to Apple’s iOS as both of them can only run on the smartphones of their own brand. After the release of the second version of the blackberry mobile operating system which supported Java applications developers were able to develop Java Applications through Java Development Environment, an integrated development environment also known as IDE that makes the job easier with the help of an editor, debugger, device simulator, and memory viewer. The JDE is available to download from the official BlackBerry website. RAPC Compiler and Sun Java Compiler are used in concurrence with the JDE. You can either use JDE alone or concatenate it with another graphical IDE like Eclipse.

If you wish to download applications on Blackberry mobile operating system, these are the ways you can use to do it:

Download it from BlackBerry App World.
Use the built-in browser to download applications.
Downloading via the BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

BlackBerry announced that it is ending support last year from January 4, 2022, and the company will discontinue offering significant services for its existing devices. There was a time when Blackberry was one of the most popular smartphone brands which was famous for its mid-range smartphones at very affordable prices. Blackberry did a great job on its BlackBerry mobile operating system which made the hardware and software of the BlackBerry smartphones quite a great sync. All the functions of smartphones like wifi connections, data, phone calls, and SMS stopped working after discontinuation.

Symbian OS

Symbian Operating system is a mobile operating system developed by Symbian limited in 1998 and first time delivered to the public by Nokia mobile phones. It had a high level of network connectivity and it was powered by the Java programming language. Symbian Operating System was based on integrating wireless communication middleware with personal information management (PIM) capabilities. Initially, it was developed as a proprietary operating system for personal digital uses by Symbian limited then it was used by many smartphone brands like Samsung, Motorola, Sony, and Nokia. It was one of the most popular mobile operating systems worldwide which are also known for the establishment of the mobile phone industry as there were very few brands providing good services at the time. Then as the use of smartphones increased more providers came into the competition and the downfall of Symbian OS started. Symbian Operating System was completely overtaken by Android and Apple’s iOS. The core of this mobile operating system was written in C++ language and it gives medium-level security to the users. It is still active and being used by many smartphone brands but is not popular anymore and currently, very few people know about it. The kernel version of Symbian OS is Real Time Microkernel, EKA2. It has two components one being the real-time microkernel with its multifunctional libraries and the other one being the interface that interacts with the user and provides a graphical shell to the OS. The most popular interface was S60 also known as Series 60 developed by Nokia and launched for the first time in 2002 providing amazing performance to the Nokia Smartphone devices. Developers are not able to make new applications for Symbian mobile operating system but the old applications are still usable. It was one of the biggest source codes ever released to the public after Nokia acquired Symbian OS completely in 2008.

Windows Mobile Operating System

As we already know, Windows Mobile operating system was developed by Microsoft and launched in the year 2000. It was first released as a portable desktop OS aiming to provide all services of a desktop in a smartphone and it was renamed in 2003 as “Windows Mobile”. It had an impressive smartphone screen that was covered with various colored squares instead of using simple icons like others but at the same time, it had a very basic and easy-to-understand interface with huge typography. But it was not a great success, as the rise of Android and Apple’s iOS occurred windows fell to the ground. They tried several times by releasing more versions but it never came close to Android and Apple’s iOS. The last version of Windows Mobile was released in 2015 with the name Windows version 6.5.5. Afterward, Microsoft ceased development on Windows mobile operating system and continued with the Desktop operating system.

Mostly all Windows Mobile had some common features like multitasking, File system navigation which was similar to Windows 9x and Windows NT.

A mobile version of Internet Explorer was developed specifically for Windows Mobile to be used as a default browser in their smartphones. Meanwhile, the user interface was changed mostly with all versions with similar functionality. It has a taskbar, and a Home screen (previously called Today’s Screen), and some devices even have radio functions available too for the users. The taskbar contains a time bar and basic volume settings and the home screen is used to show widgets like reminders, calendar, owner info, business mail, and important tasks.

Internet connection sharing was available on a few compatible devices which allowed the user to share the same internet connection between the mobile phone and the computer desktop through USB tethering and Bluetooth. Most devices with internet connectivity also have a Radio Interface layer which is used to provide an interface between the cell core layer within the Windows Mobile Operating System and the Radio protocol stack.

As we know, in the starting era of mobile phones there were not only smartphones being used, keypad phones also played a major role in people’s life. There are three versions of Windows Mobile that are available to be fitted with different hardware devices.

Windows Mobile Professional: Available for smartphones with touch screens devices.
Windows Mobile Standard: Available for mobile phones with a keypad or no touch screen function.
Windows Mobile Classic: Available for Pocket PCs and personal digital assistants.

We have already discussed that Pocket PCs and personal digital assistants were initially the main platforms for Windows Mobile. It had mainly two categories: devices with not enough mobile capabilities and devices with enough mobile capabilities. Windows Mobile 6 Professional was developed for devices with enough mobile phone capabilities and Windows Mobile 6 Classic was developed for devices with not enough mobile phone capabilities.

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