When we think of an operating system, what comes up to your mind?
Ah! Yes I know. It is Windows isn’t it? Or is it Mac?
The simple pronunciation of the mere word operating system makes us remember the times of sitting helplessly in front of our microcomputers divulging ourselves in the wonders of an operating system’s function without even knowing how the operating system works. But who cares how it does everything as long as it does so.
Operating system is the system software that controls the efficient functioning of a computer system. It controls the functions of the hardware and the application programs that are made to run on it. Consider it as a link between the user and the hardware, without it, the user cannot run applications programs or use the hardware, except if the application program is self booting. With time the operating system has advanced from the dinosaur age BSD and Linux to the modern age Microsoft Windows. It is pertinent to know that the operating systems are not ordinarily confined to computers, but with advancing age technology has also broadened the use of an operating system to cellular phones and video game consoles.
A cellular phone OS controls the functioning of a smartphone. To be more specific, it combines the features of an computer OS (e.g. Windows) with touchscreen, Blue tooth, WiFi, GPS Mobile Navigation, Audio, Video and all the many other features that a mobile phone beholds. The Android, iOS and Blackberry OS are some of the operating system that we commonly have installed in the cellular phones in our pockets. Recently, in 2010, while witnessing the boom of smart-phone business and the riches it holds, Windows also entered in the cellular phone OS market and launched it on 21 October, 2010 in the European Union and for all you Nokia lovers, the great news for you is that Windows has signed a partnership with Nokia for the development of future cellular phones which operate on Windows.
As the market of Operating Systems for mobile phones grew, the competition between these operating system also increased with some claiming that iOS was the best while others claiming that Windows was unique. But as they say money cannot buy you recognition, Android has stood as by far the most commonly used and the most loved operating system in the world. As according to the most recent survey conducted on the sales of smartphones, those which use Android have seen their sales go up by 9% to 52.5% in the third quarter of 2011 while the second best is Symbian which, miles behind at 16.9% sales, gives an insight to the wider market of Android and the acceptability of it to the people.
The question now arises that why is Android so widespread? Why are smartphones running on Android OS currently the most selling phones in the market?
The answer lies not in that these phones are prettiest or have the sleekest design, or it may have that too, but the true significance is in the upward level of technology that Android provides. Android achieves this level by being an open source project, a phrase widely reserved to this kind because of the restrictions on other mobile OS like iOS. An open source project allows the development and enhancement of this OS not merely an individual company effort but a team effort that draws participants from all around the globe. The advantage of Android is that it is tweak-able. It allows users to create their own applications which may be good, bad or crazy. It discourages the closed system shenanigans of Apple and many other OS.
We must not ignore that all credit for the success of Android is reserved for Google and its Open Handset Alliance which is a consortium of 84 firms which include Google, HTC, Samsung, Dell, Intel, NVIDIA and many others. Credit Google for thinking out of the box. They could have come up with something very similar to Microsoft but that would not have enabled them to outfox and out Microsoft. So in order to succeed, they created their own route to success and how well has it come off, the results speaks volume