by Daniel Arroyo

Contributing Editor - WIIE

The days when your mobile phone was more like your watch than your PC are over. Mobile phones are no longer closed pieces of hardware with a fixed set of pre-loaded applications. The importance of 3^rd party applications adding after-market value to the product is increasing. At the heart of this are the different development platforms offered by different players in the wireless industry.

Let’s take a look at the most important ones and what they have (or don’t have) to offer.

Google’s Android

In an attempt to better control the distribution of its services (maybe also its ad distribution engine…), Google bought and is bringing to market yet another Linux-based mobile OS: Android.

In fact Google’s Android is more an application framework than an OS. The Linux kernel was probably chosen to power the application framework because of its open source nature and thus the lack of control and licensee fee. So was the Java-like Dalvik virtual machine which was chosen citing better performance but it’s likely another move to prevent outside dependencies.

by Daniel Arroyo

Contributing Editor - WIIE

The days when your mobile phone was more like your watch than your PC are over. Mobile phones are no longer closed pieces of hardware with a fixed set of pre-loaded applications. The importance of 3^rd party applications adding after-market value to the product is increasing. At the heart of this are the different development platforms offered by different players in the wireless industry.

Let’s take a look at the most important ones and what they have (or don’t have) to offer.

Google’s Android

In an attempt to better control the distribution of its services (maybe also its ad distribution engine…), Google bought and is bringing to market yet another Linux-based mobile OS: Android.

In fact Google’s Android is more an application framework than an OS. The Linux kernel was probably chosen to power the application framework because of its open source nature and thus the lack of control and licensee fee. So was the Java-like Dalvik virtual machine which was chosen citing better performance but it’s likely another move to prevent outside dependencies.

It’s a promising set of APIs in which applications are developed using the familiar Java programming language. It remains to be seen how major Carriers will embrace Android; one has to remember that it wasn’t designed with the Carrier in mind and Google’s push for open (and free) services might upset their well guarded walled gardens.

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile

Based on widely popular Win32 APIs and with native .net framework support, this proprietary closed OS has the advantage of a massive PC-based developer community and Microsoft’s excellent developer program and tools.

In the downside the OS is not open source and OEMs pay a hefty fee to integrate it. Currently very popular among enterprise users because of its native support for most Microsoft based back-ends, it has challenges to become a main stream OS. Its User Interface is going to need major work and it remains to be seen whether OEMs will pay up the fees to integrate the OS when they now have multiple free options.

Apple’s OS X

Even though this OS is only used by one phone so far (iPhone), it can’t be ignored because of the growing popularity of the device and the easy-to-deploy application store that Apple has created. The great buzz and excitement keeps growing as we hear stories about developers making thousands of dollars a day with their iPhone applications: Everyone wants in.

For now this OS’ success is dependent on how well “The Device” does. We all look forward to seeing what Apple does after people get used to touch screens and multi-touch UIs.

For now it seems that iPhone users are willing to spend substantial money on complementing the device with 3^rd party applications and Apple has made it very easy for developers to develop, certify and sell their applications.

RIM OS

This proprietary OS powers the popular Blackberry devices. Applications are created using the Java language. However, in order to get access to deep device features a lot of proprietary APIs are used, making portability to other Java platforms quite difficult.

With RIM’s push into the consumer segment, this could become a mainstream developer platform. It is again dependant on how one device manufacturer performs (RIM).

Symbian Foundation

Symbian OS powers more than half the smart phones in the world; it’s currently used by Nokia’s S60, Motorola and Sony-Ericsson’s UIQ and the Japanese MOAP platform. All three of these platforms will merge to form the open-source and license-free Symbian Foundation Software.

Developers can use C++ to write applications natively but other runtime environments are also available on Symbian phones (e.g. Java, Python, Flash, JavaScript and Open C).

This platform has been tested in the market for years; it was built specifically for Mobile devices taking into account requirements ranging from manufacturing, carriers, developers and end-users.

Different flavors of Linux

Too long of a list to go through but one common factor: fragmentation within the Linux platform is the greatest. Most share the Linux kernel but that’s about it. Developers will have to struggle with multiple application frameworks. To me the Linux mobile landscape resembles the proprietary OS more than the open OS. A device OS is much more than a kernel…

To summarize, it seems clear that the application platform (or the underlying OS that it runs on) is not as important as the opportunity to make money with your applications. Nowadays developers are savvy and learn fast (Apple’s Objective C wasn’t exactly a popular language before the iPhone).

The winners will certainly be the ones that better help developers create value for the platform and themselves.