PDA Operating Systems

This post is a continuation of the series exploring mobile technology platforms. For introduction to the series please refer to: "What technology platform to choose for development of mobile applications?"

Other postings in the series:
Mobile Messaging
Mobile Web
Mobile Java
BREW
Symbian
Mobile Linux
Microsoft Windows Mobile Platform

PDA Operating Systems

A number of PDA based smartphones are available on the market. Those PDAs run one of the three operating systems:
• Microsoft Windows Mobile
• PalmSource PalmOS
• RIM Blackberry

Metrowerks CodeWarrier Development Studio is the primary development platform and C/C++ are the native languages for PalmOS. Blackberry’s application development framework – Blackberry Mobile Data System (MDS) is Java based. Microsoft Windows Mobile Platform has been discussed at the earlier posting.

According to Canalys, among the PDA based smartphones PalmOS has the largest market share (4.7% in 2005) and Blackberry the fastest growth trajectory.

OS vendor	2004 Shipments	% Share	2005 Shipments	% Share	Growth 04/05
PalmSource	1,210,090	5.2%	2,199,360	4.7%	81.75%
Microsoft	1,119,610	4.8%	1,426,770	3.0%	27.4%
RIM	135,180	.6%	684,410	1.5%	406%

Source: Canalys estimates © 2005 canalys.com ltd.

Microsoft Windows Mobile Platform

This post is a continuation of the series exploring mobile technology platforms. For introduction to the series please refer to: "What technology platform to choose for development of mobile applications?"

Other postings in the series:
Mobile Messaging
Mobile Web
Mobile Java
BREW
Symbian
Mobile Linux

Microsoft Windows Mobile Platform

Windows Mobile Platform supports smartphones and Pocket PC PDAs. The platform includes mobile versions of Microsoft Office, Outlook and Internet Explorer. Microsoft Visual Studio is the development environment. The biggest advantage of this platform is a shortened learning curve for those who previously developed desktop applications using the Microsoft set of tools. The drawback is a limited set of smartphones supporting the platform today. A catalog of devices supporting Windows Mobile can be found here.

Smartphone and Pocket PC versions of the platform are not identical. According to Microsoft 85% of APIs are common across the two versions.

Mobile Linux

This post is a continuation of the series exploring mobile technology platforms. For introduction to the series please refer to: "What technology platform to choose for development of mobile applications?"

Other postings in the series:
Mobile Messaging
Mobile Web
Mobile Java
BREW
Symbian

Mobile Linux

Linux is number two in the market share of operating systems running on smartphones. According to Canalys, over 15 million phones with Linux were shipped by the end of 2005. A mobile version of Linux is offered by MontaVista (http://www.mvista.com/). PalmSource acquired China MobileSoft, developer of the mobile version of Linux, and is evolving its strategy around Linux.

Mobile Linux is benefiting from successes of Linux running on servers and desktops. Open source philosophy and availability of a broad array of development tools appeals to many phone manufacturers and developers. However, customization of Linux for phone devices is complex and costly as Linux was not originally designed with mobile devices in mind.

Mobile Linux applications can be developed in a variety in languages. J2ME is by far the most popular.