Republic of Iraq

Ministry of Higher Education and

Scientific Research
University of Babylon
College of Information Technology
Department of Software

Mobile Operating System

By: Ahmed Salim Salih

Supervised by: Dr.Aladdin Alsharifi

 ABSTRACT
In recent times the smartphones and the tablets have taken the world by storm. These
mobile devices are having a significant impact on our lives and are in fact redefining the
way we access information and communicate with others. This is due to not only the
hardware but the specialized software that these devices run and most importantly, their
operating system (OS) known as Mobile Operating System. Just like a PC can run on
different OS’s or different versions of the same OS, most of the smartphones also runs on
various Mobile Operating Systems which is the backbone of the whole functioning of the
mobile device.

In this paper, we focus on the characteristics of mobile OS, evolution of mobile OS,
various categories of it, market share they possess in the globe, a comparative study on
various mobile OS’s featuere. The final section of this paper addresses the issues and
challenges associated with these mobile OS.
Keywords: Mobile Operating System, Evolution of Mobile OS, Security Issues

1
 Introduction
Mobile phones are emerging from mere communicative devices to software-intensive
devices like PC’s and almost every manufacturer have stepped up on focus on creating
more innovative mobile operating platforms.

A Mobile Operating System is also known as Mobile OS is a set of data and programs
that runs on a computer or mobile device. It manages all the hardware and optimizes the
efficacy of the application software in the device. A mobile OS manages mobile
multimedia functions, mobile and Internet connectivity and so on in a mobile device.

Mobile OS are seen in smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers
and information appliances or smart devices which may include embedded systems, or
other mobile devices and wireless devices.

The conclusive success of a mobile platform entirely depends on its adaptability to the
third party applications and ultimately, it constructs the global market. In the recent years,
since the launch of the Smartphone, it has proved itself to be an end-to end mobile
communication solution for the global mobile users. Now, with the introduction of the
various mobile OS, the major smartphone companies are creating a monopoly of securing
the information system. They drive the open standard users and mobile phone operators
to receive custom content, which is not common carrier functions and are delivered to the
users as a closed set or exclusive set of information services.

2. Characteristics of Mobile OS for Smartphones

The smartphone market has very specific requirements that make it different from the
markets for PCs and other mobile phones. Scaling down a PC-OS and to have
communication capabilities within a small and basic OS ends in various fundamental
compromises. The characteristics that build Smartphone markets is unique and calls for a
comprehensively designed OS.

(i) Smartphones are small and handy.

(ii) Multiple, Frequent and continuous connectivity
(iii) Products Diversity
(iv) Open Platform
(v) Limited Memory

Operating systems that can be found on smartphones include Google’s Android, Apple’s
iOS, Research In Motion (RIM)’s BlackBerry OS, Microsoft’s Windows Phone, Linux,
HP’s webOS, Samsung’s Bada, Nokia’s MeeGo among many others. Android, Bada,
webOS and Maemo are built on top of Linux, and iOS is derived from the BSD and
NeXTSTEP Os’s, which are all related to UNIX.

3. Evolution of Mobile OS

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The ever growing, innovating, and awesome world of smartphones has a history as
everything else. Back from the days of Palm OS to Android Honeycomb where more
than half a dozen Smartphone Operating Systems are available in the global market..

Presenting below in the Table 1 is a cool timeline view of how the evolution has taken
place from 1996 – 2011 provided by [x]cube LABS [12]:
Table 1: Evolution of Mobile OS

Name of the Year of New Features

Mobile O/S launch
Palm OS 1.0 1996 RIM applications Address, Datebook, Memo pad, To-do list
Palm OS 2.0 1997 Mail and Expense are added
Palm OS 3.0 1998 HotSync Support, Web Clipping Support, native 8-bit color
support
Pocket PC 2000 2000
Pocket PC 2002 2001 MSN Messenger, Media Player 8 Enhanced UI
Palm OS 4.0 2001 External File Systems, 16-bit color screens
Palm OS 5.0 2002 PACE Emulator, Bluetooth Emulator
Windows Mobile 2003 Bluetooth Integration, Pocket Internet Explorer, Windows
2003 Media Player 9.0
Windows Mobile 2004 SE Potrait and Landscape switching for Pocket PCs and WPA
2003 SE
Palm OS Cobalt 2004 Telecommunication, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Connectivity
Windows Mobile 2005 Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, Global Positioning System
5 (GPS) Management Interface, Introduction to Office Mobile
Blackberry OS 4.1 2005
iPhone OS 1.0 2007
Windows Mobile 2007 .NET Compact Framework v2 SP2 Microsoft SQL Server 2005
6 Compact Edition Windows Live
Blackberry OS 4.2 2007 Voice Notes Option,
Email and SMS in separate folders
iPhone OS 2.0 2008 Third Party Application support, Sync Google contacts
Blackberry OS 4.5 2008 HTML emails, faster performance and improved multi-tasking,
Microsoft Office Documents ToGO
Windows Mobile 2008 Threaded SMS full page, zooming in Internet Explorer and
6.1 Domain Enroll
Android 1.0 2008
Symbian OS 2008 Desktop Interactive Widgets, FaceBook IM chat
Android 1.1 2009 Support for saving attachments from MMS, Marque in layouts,
API changes
Blackberry OS 5 2009 Wireless Sync, Blackberry Enterprise Server 5, almost
revamped web browser
Windows 6.5 2009 Internet Explorer Mobile 6 and Multi touch support
Samsung Bada 1.0 2009
iPhone OS 3.0 2009 Push Notifications, cut, copy and paste, Turn-by-Turn
Navigation, Voice memos
HP Web OS 2009 Synergy app, multi-touch gestures and multi-tasking

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 Android 1.5 (Cup 2009 Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP support, Uploading videos to
cake) YouTube and pictures to Picasa
Android 1.6 2009 WVGA screen resolution support Google free turn-by turn
(Donut) navigation
Android 2.0/2.1 2009 HTML5 support, Microsoft Exchange Server, Bluetooth 2.1
(Éclair)
iPhone iOS 4.0 2010 Multitasking, Folders
Blackberry OS 6 2010 New media interface, stronger social media integration, Multiple
Contact Lists, track pad support for swipe gestures
Windows Phone 7 2010 Tiled UI, Loud-based services support, Multitasking
Android 2.2 2010 USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, Adobe Flash
(Froyo) 10.1support
Android 2.3 2010 Multi-touch software keyboard, Support for extra large screen
(GingerBread) sizes and resolutions
Symbian^2 OS 2010 Royalty-free version
Symbian^3 OS 2010 Native Webkit browser, 2D and 3D graphics architecture, UI
improvements and support for external displays through HDMI
Android 3.0 2011 Optimized tablet support, with a new UI, 3D desktop, Video
(HoneyComb) chat with Gtalk support

In the next section we will focus our discussion on various categories of Mobile OS and
the market share they possess in the global markets.

4. Categories of Mobile OS

The various categories of Mobile OS include (i) Manufacturer-built proprietary OS, (ii)
Third party Proprietary OS and (iii) Free and Open Source OS.

4.1 Manufacturer-Built Proprietary OS

Some device manufacturers use their own proprietary operating system for their phones
and tablets. A good example is Apple, with iOS being the operating system developed by
them for their iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad devices. Other examples include RIM who
uses their proprietary BlackBerry OS for all BlackBerry phones and tablets, and HP,
using their proprietary Palm Web OS for their Palm series of smartphones and tablets. A
characteristic of such operating systems is that they have a very consistent look and feel
across all devices that they run on, the way Mac OS X appears and behaves the same way
on a Macbook Pro as it does on an iMac or a Macbook Air. The popular Mobile OS
under this category are Apple iOS, RIM BlackBerry OS, HP WebOS etc..

4.2 Third-Party Proprietary OS

The other category is the proprietary operating systems built by companies that do not
manufacture devices, but license their operating system to manufacturers for running it
on theirs. The popular examples are Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7, built by
Microsoft and found running on smartphones by HTC, Samsung, Dell and LG, amongst
others. These operating systems also have usually a consistent appearance and behavior

4
across all devices, just like Windows 7 appears and behaves the same regardless of what
brand of computer you are running it on.

4.3 Free and Open Source OS

There are open source operating systems built by a company, a group of companies or a
community of developers and made available for everyone to modify them in any way
they choose, and install them on their choice of devices. Examples of these operating
systems include Android, Symbian, the upcoming MeeGo and most importantly,
Android.

Device manufacturers fine-tune such operating systems to best suit their devices and
often add additional features or interfaces to set them apart from other versions of the
same operating system, and this often becomes their selling point. HTC has had a history
of customizing Android for its phones and including a graphically enhanced interface
called HTC sense in an effort to enhance user experience. Furthermore, such operating
systems have a lot more customizations available in form of installable software that
changes their look, feel and behavior, providing different entirely user experiences. Being
open source, these operating systems also offer independent developers the opportunity to
modify them from scratch and run them on devices not supported officially, or to bring an
entirely new user experience to officially supported devices.

5. Market Share

The increasing importance of mobile devices has triggered intense competition amongst
software giants such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, other Open Source Communities, as
well as mobile industry leaders Nokia, Samsung, Research In Motion (RIM) and Palm, in
a bid to capture the largest market share preemptively. According to the UK based market
research and consulting firm, Wireless Expertise, the global sales of smartphones will
increase from around 165.2 million in 2009 to 422.96 million in 2013 ad escalating the
total number of smartphones using community to 1.6 billions. The firm’s market research
also forecasted that the global market for smartphone applications and games is worth
$4.66 billion in 2009 which will rose to $16.60 billion in 2013. Currently the mobiles
outnumber the PCs by 4:1, which represents, even bigger chances for mobile industry.
Let us see the market share of the most popular Mobile OS in the following Table 2:

Table 2: Table showing market share of popular Mobile OS till 2010 Q2

RIM Other
Source Year Symbian Android iOS Microsoft
BlackBerry OSs
2011
Gartner 22% 43% 12% 18% 2% 3%
Q2
2011
Gartner 27.4% 36.0% 12.9% 16.8% 3.6% 3.3%
Q1
Gartner 2010 37.6% 22.7% 16.0% 15.7% 4.2% 3.8%
Gartner 2009 46.9% 3.9% 19.9% 14.4% 8.7% 6.1%
Gartner 2008 52.4% 0.5% 16.6% 8.2% 11.8% 10.5%

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 Gartner 2007 63.5% N/A 9.6% 2.7% 12.0% 12.1%

2011 Q2

50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25% 2011 Q2
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
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Figure 1: A Bar Chart Showing the Market Share of Various Mobile OS in 2011 Q2
Some important features of various popular Mobile OS were compared and are presented
in the form of the Table 3, given below:
Table 3: Comparative Chart of various features of some of the popular Mobile OS

Window Windows BlackBe

Feature iOS Android Symbian Maemo Bada
s Mobile Phone 7 rry OS
Open
Symbian
Handset Microsof Samsun
Company Apple Microsoft RIM Foundati Nokia
Alliance t g
on
(Google)
4.2.10
2.3.4
(CDMA),
Current (Phones)
4.3.5 (All 6.5.3 7.10.7720.0 6.0.0 9.5 5.0 1.2
Version 3.2
other iOS
(Tablets)
devices)
Propriet
ary
Windows Windows CE Mobile Mobile
OS Family Mac OS X Linux Linux RTOS
CE 5.2 7 OS OS
or Linux

ARM,
Supported MIPS,
CPU ARM Power ARM ARM ARM ARM ARM ARM
Architecture Architectu
re, x86
C, C++, Many, .NET
Programme C, C++,
Objective C++ (Silverlight/X Java C++ C/C++ C++
d in Java
C NA)
Proprietar Free and Eclipse Free and
Proprieta Proprieta Propriet
License y EULA open Proprietary Public open source
ry ry ary
except for source License except

6
 open prior to closed
source version 3 source
componen and closed components
ts source
from
version 3
Limited
(Search
Non English is not
languages Yes Limited Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes diacritic
support al mark
insensiti
ve)
Underlining
Spellchecke Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No
r
Search
multiple
internal Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
applications
at once
Only
global, not
Proxy
Yes per Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Server
connectio
n
On-device
Yes No Yes No Yes ? Yes No
encryption
No, but
often
provided
Desktop
Yes in Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sync
manufactu
rer
software
Default
Web
Webkit Webkit Trident Trident Webkit Webkit Gecko Webkit
Browser/En
gine
Windows
Official Windows Symbian
Android Marketpl App maemo.org, Samsun
Application App Store Phone Horizon,
Market ace for World Ovi store g Apps
Store Marketplace Ovi store
Mobile
Bluetooth, microUS
USB, USB,
USB B,
Bluetoot Bluetooth
(carrier Mobile USB, Bluetoot
h, Mobile Not officially, , Mobile microUSB,
dependent Wi-Fi Bluetoot h 3.0,
Wi-Fi supported Wi-Fi Bluetooth,
Tethering ), Personal Hotspot, h, Mobile Mobile
Hotspot through Hotspot Mobile Wi-
Hotspot USB, Wi-Fi Wi-Fi
(with 3rd homebrew (with 3rd Fi Hotspot
(Wi-Fi Bluetooth Hotspot Hotspot
party party
Tethering)
software) software
(carrier

7
 dependent,
iPhone 4s
since iOS
4.2.5/4.3,
or with
3rd party
software
and
"jailbreak"
)
Only for
Interchange
photo/vide
able
o import
external Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
with an
memory
optional
cards
accessory

Multitaskin 2+
Yes Yes Yes Tombstoning Yes Yes Yes
g

text files, Read

PDF, only:
Microsoft
HTML, text
Office,iW Microsof Microsoft
Microsoft Microsof Multiple files,
Text/Docum ork, PDF, t Office Office
Office t Office, office PDF,
ent Support Images, Mobile, Mobile,
Mobile, PDF PDF formats HTML,
TXT/RTF, PDF PDF,djvu
with free Multiple
VCF
3rd party office
software formats
AAC
LC/LTP
3GPP,
AAC (8 to
HE-
320
AACv1
Kbps),
(AAC+),
Protected
HE-
AAC MP3,
AACv2 MP3,
(from AAC,
(enhanced WAVE,
iTunes MP3, AAC, WMA,
AAC+), WMA, All (some
Store), AAC+, M4A,
AMR-NB, AAC+, require
Audio HE-AAC, eAAC+, XMF,
AMR- MIDI, All optional
Playback MP3 (8 to WAV, WMA 3GA,
WB, MP3 AMR, debian
320 pro, AMR- MMF,
(Mono/Ste eAAC+, packages)
Kbps), NB, MIDI MIDI,
reo 8-320 FlAC,
MP3 WAV,
kbit/s OGG
VBR, AMR
constant
Apple
or variable
Lossless,
bit-rate,
AIFF,
MIDI
WAV
(MIDI
Type 0
and 1.

8
 DLS
Version 1
and 2.,
Ogg
Vorbis,
PCM/WA
VE (8-
and 16-bit
linear
PCM
(rates up
to limit of
hardware),
WAVE
MP4,
H.263, H.263, H.264, H.263,
WMV,
H.264 WMV, H.264, All (some WMV,
H.264 H.263,
AVC, MPEG4, WMV, require ASF,
Video AVC, H.264,
MPEG-4 MPEG4@ MPEG4, optional MP4,
Playback MPEG-4, DivX,
SP, DivX, HD 720p MKV, debian 3GP,
M-JPEG WMV,
XviD, 30fps, DivX, DivX, packages) AVI
XviD,
VP8 [181] XviD XviD
3gp
6. Issues and Challenges

Multiple Mobile OS’s poses various challenges. In this section we elaborate the common
and fundamental issues and challenges of the Mobile OS:

 Mobile OS design suffers from usability and interoperability problems.

Usability problems are difficult due to the small physical size of the mobile
phone form factors. Interoperability issues arise from the platform
fragmentation of mobile devices, mobile operating systems and mobile
browsers.
 Hardware and software configuration management.
 Content delivery for various smartphones operated by various service providers
is difficult
 Introduces the possibility of the configuration errors,bugs (in both the OS itself
and in the applications it runs), viruses and other malware.
 Adaptability of applications on various Mobile OS’s. Designing of an app for
more than one mobile OS requires more than one design and every mockup has
to be intuitive for the specific groups of users (specific to OS).
 Personalization is considered to be biggest challenge as it is the key enabler for
the success of the OS.
 System integrity
 Power management
 Continuous Connectivity
 User Interface designs for various mobile apps.
 Approach for positioning of apps for Navigation by various Mobile OS is
different.

9
  Space management and resource saving elements like pop-overs, alerts,
software gradients, graphic elements etc..
 Testing of the applications on a plethora of mobile OS’s.

7. Conclusion

Like a computer operating system, a mobile OS is the software platform on top of which
other programs run. When you purchase a mobile device, the manufacturer will have
chosen the operating system for that specific device. The operating system is responsible
for determining the functions and features available on your device, such as thumbwheel,
keyboards, WAP, synchronization with applications, e-mail, text messaging and more.
The mobile operating system will also determine which third-party applications can be
used on your device. In this paper we had limited our discussions to the evolution,
various categories of mobile OS, market share, comparative study, issues and challenges.
The research is going on all these issues and challenges and the solutions are being
developed to prospect and sustain in this competitive market by various vendors.

8. References

[1]. Arto Kettula, Security Comparison of Mobile OSes, HUT TML, Seminar of
Network Security, 2000.
[2]. "Gartner Says Sales of Mobile Devices in Second Quarter of 2011 Grew 16.5
Percent Year-on-Year; Smartphone Sales Grew 74 Percent". Gartner. 11
August 2011
[3]. http://www.android.com/
[4]. http://symbian.nokia.com/
[5]. http://in.blackberry.com/services/blackberry6/
[6]. http://www.apple.com/iphone/ios4/
[7]. http:// developer.palm.com/
[8]. http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Final_SDK_Installation#Ins
talling_Maemo_5_SDK_using_GUI_Installer
[9]. https://meego.com/community/blogs/imad/2011/whats-next-meego
[10]. http://www.bada.com/whatisbada/
[11]. http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/wireless-expertise-
predicts-smartphone-sales-surge
[12]. http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
[13]. R. Tafazolli, Ed., Technologies for the Wireless Future. Wiley, 2005.
[14]. M. Landman, “Managing smart phone security risks,” in 2010 Information
Security Curriculum Development Conference, ser.InfoSecCD ’10. New
York, NY, USA: ACM, 2010, pp. 145–155. [Online]. Available:
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1940941.1940971
[15]. The Evolution of Mobile Operating Sytems, Infographic, XCubelabs.com.

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[16]. Thomas Renner, Mobile OS – Features, Concepts and Challenges for
Enterprise Environments, 2010.
[17]. Palm (PDA), Wikipedia: The Free Palm
Encyclopedia,en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_(PDA), retrieved March 21, 2009.
[18]. Upkar Varshney, Ron Vetter, Emerging Mobile and Wireless Networks,
Communiations of the ACM, Vol 4.3, No.6, Pg Nos: 73-81, 2000.

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