SYMBIAN
This one is possibly the most popular operating system for mobile phones, running over on 100 million smartphones. It is still not a complete open source, although parts of the source code are provided to manufactures. Most Symbian smartphones run on S60, a leading smartphone platform.
The fifth edition of the S60 supports high-resolution touchscreen functions. An important feature of the S60 phones is that they allow new applications to be installed after purchase. Among other features, the latest Symbian release offers native support for mobile digital television broadcast.
Previously, thinking about Symbian meant thinking about Nokia, but things are changing. The latest handsets from Samsung and Sony Ericsson run on S60 platform too.
BLACKBERRY
Blackberry almost always refers to the handheld devices that come with a trackball, QWERTY keypad, push e-mail, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services.
The Blackberry OS is a proprietary software platform for these devices. The important feature is the synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Server and Lotus Domino e-mail servers. The new version of the OS allows wireless activation and synchronization with the Exchange’s e-mail, calendar, tasks, notes, contacts as well as support for Novell Group=Wise and Lotus Notes. The latest Blackberry Storm also supports touchscreen features.
ANDROID
Technically, Android is a Linux OS, but thanks to Google’s interest and the creation of the Open Handset Alliance, it has taken on a life of its own.
The latest Android version allows users to record and watch videos on the camcorder mode, upload videos to YouTube and pictures to Picasa directly from the phone, auto-connect with a Bluetooth headset within a certain distance, new widgets and folders, animations between screens, and the copy-paste option.
However, not many phones run on Android; HTC was the first to come out with what is popularly referred to as the Google Phone.
