Nowadays, mobile technologies are developing at a fenomenal rate. In third-world countries, mobile technology might be the first time a person has used the Internet - effectively skipping the desktop generation. In developed nations, it is predicted that mobile browsing will soon account for more than half of all traffic, especially with tablets replacing laptops and most people checking their e-mail on smartphones.
Early Days
Internet-connected mobile phones have been around for a long time. Even the classic staple - Nokia 3310 - had Internet capabilities.
Hoever, the networking capabilities of such phones were limited. Network speed was slow, using the Internet was expensive and most of all the experience was poor on a small grayscale screen. As network speeds got faster and phone capabilities improved, the browsing and Internet usage experience on phones kept getting better.
Better Browsing
Phones such as the Sony Ericsson P900i and Nokia Ngage featured large screens and faster network speeds thanks to GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and 3G (UMTS/CDMA2000).
On these screens, mobile content was no longer limited to specifically-written WAP sites. Instead, these phones could display normal HTML and XHTML content and supported CSS and, to a limited extent, Javascript. At the same time, these phones also offered built-in e-mail and instant messaging clients.
BlackBerry
Use of Internet on mobile greatly increased with the introduction of BlackBerry devices. On such devices, special services would be available via the mobile operator. These included push e-mail, BlackBerry Messenger and a rich browsing experience.
BlackBerry was marketed as the ultimate business phone, enabling travelling workers to have an office on the go. However, due to relatively high prices at the time, market penetration outside the US corporate sector was low.
iPhone
In 2007, Apple announced the iPhone, a phone which literally revolutionised the smartphone industry. Running on Apple's IOS, the iPhone featured a large screen, support for push e-mail, full HTML, CSS and Javascript support, thousands of applications via the App Store and a beautiful user interface. Unlike BlackBerry, the iPhone was marketed towards the consumer market. This led to an extremely fast adoption rate, and the thousands of applications on the App Store turning into tens of thousands. Apple also leveraged their music platform, by making the iPhone a fully-fledged iPod - essentially two great devices in one. Notably, the original iPhone was marketed to the US consumer, where 3G adoption was low. Hence, the original phone lacked 3G support.
With later revisions such as the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S, Apple kept adding more features such as 3G and 4G (LTE) support, accelerometers and gyroscopes, high resolution cameras, GPS and wifi-triangulation location services and much more.
Android
The Android operating system was a Linux-based open-source mobile operating system started by Andy Rubin in 2003. In 2005, Google acquired the project and released the first iteration in 2007. Unlike Apple, which manufactures both hardware and platform, Google was only working on the platform, which would then run on several mobile phones. Adoption of the Android operating system has been very steady, with numbers better than iPhone in certain markets.
Several manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson switched their main smartphone lines over to Android, and have released many phones in several categories (budget, mid-end, high-end etc...) which offer features from basic calling and texting to quad-core beasts capable of 3D photography and extremely accurate GPS.
Last year (2011), Google purchased Motorola's mobility arm in what analysts say is a move by Google towards Apple's model of controlling both hardware and software. Motorola phones designed by Google were on sale the following year.
Windows Phone 7
Microsoft has been in the mobile industry for a long time with its Windows Mobile operating system. Traditionally, Microsoft's market-share has been low, with its operating system mostly used on PDAs such as the HTC line of PDAs and the HP iPaq series.
For their latest release, Microsoft has totally revamped the operating system, renaming it in the process to Windows Phone. Windows Phone 7 features an interesting new user interface known as Metro, which uses tiles to display information without the user having the actually launch any application.
The phone user interface is consistent with the user interface in the upcoming Windows 8. This will provide users with a consistent UI experience across Microsoft devices.
Market share
Gartner Research for Q4 2011 shows that Android currently dominates the SmartPhone industry, having a far lead on IOS followed by Symbian and BlackBerry.
Hitching a Ride: Tablets
As the sophistication of mobile operating systems grew, it was a no-brainer for manufacturers to realise the operating system could run on tablets - a fun new way to use computing. Microsoft was one of the first to realise the potential of tablets back in 2002 with its Tablet PC initiative. A set of certification guidelines which resulted in laptops which could rotate and lower their screens to tablet mode.
When in tablet mode, users would use a stylus to interact with the operating system and could handwrite, which would be efficiently recognised into text.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, it was not until Apple released their tablet that tablets became popular. The iPad, released in 2010, was an instant hit (as is customary for Apple!). The tablet used a modified version of IOS optimised for the larger screen, yet could still run every app in the App Store. Additionally, the tablet featured a full-size keyboard, great browsing experience and soon gained a reputation as a great gaming device. Apple has since released two updates to its tablet - the iPad 2 and the third generation tablet simply called "The new iPad".
Google soon caught up to the iPad when it released its Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system, the first Android OS to support large-screen devices. The first tablet to make use of Android 3.0 was the Motorola Xoom.
The Xoom, released in 2011, was a powerful, responsive tablet with specifications better than those of the original iPad. However, many users complained that the iPad still provided a better overall experience - mostly thanks to superior display technology and thousands of apps.
Later in 2011, Google released Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich", with additional features tailored to tablets. The line of new tablets using this operating system competes very well with the iPad and others.
As of Q1 2011, IDC predicts that Apple maintains a lead in the tablet market with around 55% market share. A large percentage of the Android share (and 16% of the overall share) is owned by Amazon, thanks to their Kindle tablet, an e-reader turned fully-fledged tablet.
Behind the UI
Behind the user-interface of any mobile operating system lies a fully fledged computing environment. The figure below shows the Android software stack.
As one can see, the basis of the Android operating system is the Linux kernel, which is also used for desktops, workstations, servers and super computers. This takes care of system drivers and basic tasks such as process scheduling and memory management.
On top of the Linux base layer, lie the Android libraries. These provide access to phone features such as storage, web browsing and 3D rendering. On Android, these libraries are written in Java. On top of these lie the application frameworks - the basic building blocks used by developers to write their applications. Again, these frameworks as well as the apps written by developers are programmed in Java.
The Future
As the power of tablets and smartphones increases, we will enter a world where tablet and phone sales surpass desktop sales, and we can carry all our computing power with us wherever we go - this video sums it up pretty well.
Early Days
Internet-connected mobile phones have been around for a long time. Even the classic staple - Nokia 3310 - had Internet capabilities.
Hoever, the networking capabilities of such phones were limited. Network speed was slow, using the Internet was expensive and most of all the experience was poor on a small grayscale screen. As network speeds got faster and phone capabilities improved, the browsing and Internet usage experience on phones kept getting better.
Better Browsing
Phones such as the Sony Ericsson P900i and Nokia Ngage featured large screens and faster network speeds thanks to GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and 3G (UMTS/CDMA2000).
BlackBerry
Use of Internet on mobile greatly increased with the introduction of BlackBerry devices. On such devices, special services would be available via the mobile operator. These included push e-mail, BlackBerry Messenger and a rich browsing experience.
BlackBerry was marketed as the ultimate business phone, enabling travelling workers to have an office on the go. However, due to relatively high prices at the time, market penetration outside the US corporate sector was low.
iPhone
In 2007, Apple announced the iPhone, a phone which literally revolutionised the smartphone industry. Running on Apple's IOS, the iPhone featured a large screen, support for push e-mail, full HTML, CSS and Javascript support, thousands of applications via the App Store and a beautiful user interface. Unlike BlackBerry, the iPhone was marketed towards the consumer market. This led to an extremely fast adoption rate, and the thousands of applications on the App Store turning into tens of thousands. Apple also leveraged their music platform, by making the iPhone a fully-fledged iPod - essentially two great devices in one. Notably, the original iPhone was marketed to the US consumer, where 3G adoption was low. Hence, the original phone lacked 3G support.
Android
The Android operating system was a Linux-based open-source mobile operating system started by Andy Rubin in 2003. In 2005, Google acquired the project and released the first iteration in 2007. Unlike Apple, which manufactures both hardware and platform, Google was only working on the platform, which would then run on several mobile phones. Adoption of the Android operating system has been very steady, with numbers better than iPhone in certain markets.
Last year (2011), Google purchased Motorola's mobility arm in what analysts say is a move by Google towards Apple's model of controlling both hardware and software. Motorola phones designed by Google were on sale the following year.
Windows Phone 7
Microsoft has been in the mobile industry for a long time with its Windows Mobile operating system. Traditionally, Microsoft's market-share has been low, with its operating system mostly used on PDAs such as the HTC line of PDAs and the HP iPaq series.
For their latest release, Microsoft has totally revamped the operating system, renaming it in the process to Windows Phone. Windows Phone 7 features an interesting new user interface known as Metro, which uses tiles to display information without the user having the actually launch any application.
Market share
Gartner Research for Q4 2011 shows that Android currently dominates the SmartPhone industry, having a far lead on IOS followed by Symbian and BlackBerry.
 |
| Figure: World-Wide Smartphone Sales |
As the sophistication of mobile operating systems grew, it was a no-brainer for manufacturers to realise the operating system could run on tablets - a fun new way to use computing. Microsoft was one of the first to realise the potential of tablets back in 2002 with its Tablet PC initiative. A set of certification guidelines which resulted in laptops which could rotate and lower their screens to tablet mode.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, it was not until Apple released their tablet that tablets became popular. The iPad, released in 2010, was an instant hit (as is customary for Apple!). The tablet used a modified version of IOS optimised for the larger screen, yet could still run every app in the App Store. Additionally, the tablet featured a full-size keyboard, great browsing experience and soon gained a reputation as a great gaming device. Apple has since released two updates to its tablet - the iPad 2 and the third generation tablet simply called "The new iPad".
The Xoom, released in 2011, was a powerful, responsive tablet with specifications better than those of the original iPad. However, many users complained that the iPad still provided a better overall experience - mostly thanks to superior display technology and thousands of apps.
Later in 2011, Google released Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich", with additional features tailored to tablets. The line of new tablets using this operating system competes very well with the iPad and others.
As of Q1 2011, IDC predicts that Apple maintains a lead in the tablet market with around 55% market share. A large percentage of the Android share (and 16% of the overall share) is owned by Amazon, thanks to their Kindle tablet, an e-reader turned fully-fledged tablet.
Behind the UI
Behind the user-interface of any mobile operating system lies a fully fledged computing environment. The figure below shows the Android software stack.
 |
| Figure: Android Stack |
As one can see, the basis of the Android operating system is the Linux kernel, which is also used for desktops, workstations, servers and super computers. This takes care of system drivers and basic tasks such as process scheduling and memory management.
On top of the Linux base layer, lie the Android libraries. These provide access to phone features such as storage, web browsing and 3D rendering. On Android, these libraries are written in Java. On top of these lie the application frameworks - the basic building blocks used by developers to write their applications. Again, these frameworks as well as the apps written by developers are programmed in Java.
The Future
As the power of tablets and smartphones increases, we will enter a world where tablet and phone sales surpass desktop sales, and we can carry all our computing power with us wherever we go - this video sums it up pretty well.
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