• Smartphone OS Comparison

    Smartphone OS Comparison

    Prasad Naik, Jun 05, 2009 1927 hrs IST

    We take a closer look at the top four OS' of the smartphone world

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Windows Mobile


 


 


 


Windows Mobile is Microsoft's OS for mobile phones. Unfortunately for Microsoft Windows Mobile does not enjoy the same success as its desktop counterpart with just 14% market share of all smartphones. Yet Windows Mobile is a very popular OS and has been in existence longer than the Symbian, and has its fair share of fans. The current WM 6.1 has three variants; Classic (for Pocket PCs without mobile phone functionality), Standard (for Pocket PCs with mobile phone functionality) and Professional (for Pocket PCs with mobile phone functionality and touchscreen).



Anyone who has used Windows OS on his PC (which includes almost everyone who has ever used a PC) will be comfortable and at home on a Windows Mobile based smartphone. You get a similar start button, but this time at the top left of the screen, which is your door to access all the functions of the phone. You can also set a few functions on the home screen for quick access.



Windows Mobile 6.1 is the oldest among all current touchscreen UI's and it shows when you use the phone. The UI design, the icons and the scrolling mechanism is very basic. It lacks the flair and the fancy sliding animations of the iPhone UI. Also, unlike Symbian S60, where Nokia can make any changes to the UI as they see fit, manufacturers' of WIM handsets cannot make changes to the OS. So they devised new ways to make WM more up to date with phones like the iPhone.



HTC has its TouchFLO, Sony Ericsson came up with the Panels interface. However, when it comes to usability WM phones are quite easy to use and few minutes after using them you get accustomed to the UI. However some things like the default microscopic on-screen QWERTY keypad are really frustrating and it's good that manufacturers' these days have their own version of the on-screen keypad, which is more useable.



As far as multi-tasking is concerned Windows Mobile is just as accomplished as S60. But switching between applications isn't as intuitive. You have to enter the Task Manager that shows you the list of running applications and how much memory they are consuming. From there you can switch between apps or end them.



Applications in Windows Mobile phones don't close by default when you press the close button at the top right corner. They just minimise and if you need to close them permanently you need to head to the Task Manager again. You can change the behaviour of the close button and make it force to close the apps instead of just minimising them.



Applications-wise Windows Mobile phones have a huge arsenal of applications, even more than that of Symbian S60 phones. This should be great news for those who love installing all kinds of applications on their phones. Windows Mobile phones even support Java platform, so you get to install Java applications as well. The built-in applications however are pretty basic but get the job done nonetheless. WM phones still come with Internet Explorer built-in, which is pretty slow and not that great at all when it comes to rendering web pages. No wonder that most manufacturers provide Opera Mobile pre-installed with their phones.



Windows Mobile 6.1 is going to be updated with 6.5 later this year, however 6.5 does not really bring too many improvements with it and is rather disappointing in that aspect. But what is worth waiting for is WM 7 that will be a major overhaul to Windows Mobile. However, it is still some way off and the competition is likely to go even further by then. Whether it will be able to compete with its rivals remains to be seen.


 



 

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Discussion Board
(8) Comments
Narendra
,manchester, on Jul 20, 2010 05:38 PM
The article suggests that the Palm OS is the only Os as good or better than apple OS. is there any reason why you have not included it in your article. I am not sure if palm is available in India as yet.
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pcgamer
,pccity, on Jun 10, 2009 12:51 PM
nice one.. looking for the part 2 with palm os and andriod
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Shekar
,Kolkata, on Jun 06, 2009 07:53 PM
The quality of articles/ reviews in techtree is going down everyday.... Where is Android, the mobile OS of the future??
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rohit
,gurgaon, on Jun 06, 2009 09:01 PM
how is it possible to review androis when it it not available in india yet! idiots
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rohit
,gurgaon, on Jun 06, 2009 09:01 PM
how is it possible to review android when it is not available in india yet! idiots
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jun 07, 2009 01:30 PM
The reason I have not included Android in this comparison is because I have no hand-on experience with it and I would certainly not like to write about something that I have not used myself. Same reason why Palm's webOS is not included as well.
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vijay
,shimla, on Jun 06, 2009 06:41 PM
I Think The most promising Smartphone OS i.e. Android is missing from this comparison.
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modifii
,dmn, on Jun 06, 2009 09:30 AM
Excellent article, keep it up.
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