Android, it’s a cool name for a cool piece of mobile OS but what does it really mean for the mobile landscape in the way of consumer choice? To start lets have a look at whats around in way of Operating Systems for mobiles:
- Nokia’s have a eternal bond with Symbian, using both S40 and S60 in most of their handsets.
- Samsung use a mixture of S60 Symbian and their own in-house software as well as WinMo.
- Sony Ericsson is the same with their own in-house and used to use UIQ which is based on Symbian for there higher end handsets eg P990i, P1i, though this software isn’t used anymore and we will talk about that soon, WinMo is another that is used by SE.
- Motorola uses a in-house solution built on a mixture of Java and Linux.
- LG use in-house software, Flash based UI’s for touch devices and WinMo in there “Enterprise” handsets.
Now lets consider a scenario, You are used to a Nokia and as such are looking at a purchasing a new phone, chances are you will look at another Nokia due to the fact that using it is no issue BUT what if say Motorola or Sony Ericsson has a handset you like better or has a particular that you want that Nokia doesn’t have (such as in-built Blogger.com software). This throws the whole decision making process out the window because you then need to prioritise features and find a handset that gives you enough of the features you want to be happy with your purchase.
Android i believe will change all of that, imagine walking into a phone shop and be able to purchase almost any handset from almost any manufacturer and it come with the same software with just little tweaks specific to both manufacturer and carrier it is purchased through. This is the beauty of Android, as well as it being an Open Source OS which means it is free to use and to tweak and hack to your or the carriers and manufacturers needs, it allows the manufacturers who are a part of the Open Handset Alliance which include all the manufacturers above with the exception of Nokia, to be able to use one single platform that is built on the same basis but can be completely customised to fit into their handset markets.
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