Mobile Operating Systems

Tux, the Linux penguin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is hard to beat free. And Android is free. And the integration with the Google services is a blessing. So where's the space for new mobile operating systems? Actually there is room for Google to offer free or super cheap data. There is room for free or cheap hardware. But operating system?

Google is the leading software player. Ask Apple. And it would be hard to out innovate Google's operating system.

But HTML5 does change things. At that point the Apple and Google app stores are no longer barriers to entry in the mobile space. Competition is good. There's always the allure of new, better features.

The Underdog Operating Systems Set to Shake Up the Smartphone Scene

Android was originally seen as an unbiased player with no hardware or sales revenues from handsets—a software “Switzerland” .... Tizen, a platform that’s supported primarily by Samsung and Intel; Firefox OS, created by the Mozilla Foundation, which makes the Firefox Web browser; and a version of the free, open-source Ubuntu Linux operating system designed for smartphones .... Tizen, Firefox OS, and Ubuntu are all counting heavily on Web-based HTML5 apps ..... Tizen, which grew out of Nokia’s MeeGo platform and (like Android) is based on the open-source Linux operating system, may have the best chance of success. Along with Samsung and Intel, its supporters include the wireless carriers Sprint, Vodafone, and NTT Docomo; electronics maker Panasonic; and the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. ..... novel features such as 3-D-type effects (photo browsing takes on the look of a spiraling cascade of images, for example). .... Firefox mobile apps are essentially Web pages, and the Firefox team came up with ways for Firefox OS to access all the hardware on a smartphone running the software. Even the phone’s dialer acts as an app ...... Firefox OS phones will be low on built-in memory at about 256 megabytes of RAM, and many will include a microSD slot so users can pop in their own memory card to store music, photos, and videos. He adds that the first phones are expected to cost around $100 ..... High-end smartphones running the OS will also be able to act as Ubuntu PCs when docked with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. .... 56 percent of cellphone users to be swiping and tapping on smartphones by the end of this year.

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