Tuesday, March 27, 2007
NY Times: "As Mobile Phones Grow More Complex, Carriers Insist on Fewer Operating Systems"
Posted by Janak Parekh in "ARTICLE" @ 02:00 PM
"Two operating systems run more than 95 percent of the world’s computers, but dozens of systems are behind the 2.5 billion mobile phones in circulation, a situation that has hampered the growth of new services, industry executives and independent specialists say...Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile phone company in terms of revenue, has been leading a push to limit the number of operating systems, declaring in November that it would eventually sell only phones that ran on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60 or Linux."
About time, in my opinion. I reserve a special hatred for those crippled, proprietary OSes. However, this article neglects to mention one thing: Linux is not a mobile operating system. It's an operating system kernel, from which one could create... dozens of mobile operating systems. In other words, we've still got a ways to go with standardization, and at least a few carriers (*cough*Verizon*cough*) seem to like their crippled, proprietary phones. That said, at least most major carriers have Windows Mobile options now, which is a good first step. (Free reg required to read article)
About time, in my opinion. I reserve a special hatred for those crippled, proprietary OSes. However, this article neglects to mention one thing: Linux is not a mobile operating system. It's an operating system kernel, from which one could create... dozens of mobile operating systems. In other words, we've still got a ways to go with standardization, and at least a few carriers (*cough*Verizon*cough*) seem to like their crippled, proprietary phones. That said, at least most major carriers have Windows Mobile options now, which is a good first step. (Free reg required to read article)
