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Mobile Operating Systems Comparison?

Posted by Cliff on from the king-os-of-the-handhelds dept.

dozerbull asks: "I'm working at a Canadian telecom research lab. They are looking into the creation of tools that would facilitate the development of mobile applications. Symbian OS seems to be the lead target platform candidate. There is however a small crowd that is pushing for Microsoft stuff (Pocket PC and Smartphone). How do other systems (Linux and PalmOS) stack up? What would the Slashdot community advise by way of a choice of an operating system for mobile?"

2 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. As one working in mobile application development by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    you are giving us zero information to answer your question. So what you're going to get is a bunch of opinions on why you should like one platform versus another.

    Which is totally useless in deciding which platform you should use.

    Are you doing a proof of concept, or something that will be shipped by the hundreds of thousands?

    What are the characteristics of the user?

    What are the marketing considerations? E.g. if this is something that you are planning to market as an add-on for cell phone users, if you multiply the number of users of each platform times the proability of a user of that platform will buy the product, what is the potential user base. Alternatively, if you are planning to drive the adoption of mobile technology in an area, how much will it cost your users to buy a device, and will it suit their other needs?

    Do you need access to a particular kind of peripheral? To a particular library or framework? What are your developers familiar with?

    You really have to do a bit of work to frame your question. Every platform out there works for some users for some purposes. There are still users who swear by their Newton MessagePads.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  2. Use your requirements to decide. by Thumper_SVX · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Opinions count for nothing.

    If you want something well supported in mobile devices with loads of information on how to do stuff, use Linux or Symbian (though Symbian is really more of a phone OS... at least it's tuned for that role)

    If you want Outlook connectivity that's second-to-none, use Windows Mobile. I have a Smartphone that I think is great for what it does.

    If you want reliability and a rock-solid OS or are running older hardware, do some homework and pick a good RTOS.

    If you want raw speed, try assembler.

    In the embedded space, the specific requirements of your device should drive the operating system choice. Personal preferences should count for nothing. Even a "company standard" is not good reason in my opinion to use a particular embedded OS; different hardware and application requirements demand different functions that may or may not be supported.

    I think choice of embedded OS is a lot easier than choice of Desktop OS these days.