Cell Phone Operating Systems

are here to stay and so is the technology that makes all those cool features work. You know all about your phone and what it can (and sometimes can’t) do, but maybe you don’t realize what’s in that little handset making all those apps come to life. Just like your car has an engine and that engine is a little bit different from the one in a different type, size or make of car, so does your cell phone have an operating system that keeps it running and putting out all those amazing features. Without an
cell phone operating system

Your phone wouldn’t be “smart” at all-it would not be able to function the same way a desktop or laptop computer does and today’s smart phones are giving their non-mobile cousins a run for their money. Here’s rundown of the top operating systems, where you can find them and what they do:

• Android : Originally a Linux based operating system, Android was purchased by Google shortly after being developed. Although its altruism is constantly being debated, Google has kept the Android operating system basically free and even went so far as to publish the entire code for the program at one point. Android phones are popping up all over from a variety of phone producers and they perform like their competitors and sometimes surpass them.

• iOS: In direct contrast (and in direct competition) to the Android platform, Apple’s operating system does not run on “third party” hardware. In other words, if you want to have iOS (that ubiquitous letter “i” that precedes all of their electronic devices) you are going to have to shell out the cash for an iPhone. You can’t have just any phone and use their operating system. The Apple operating system is also derived from Linux and Unix and powers not only their phones, but their iPods and Apple TV as well. 

• Blackberry OS: Known to some as the crackberry because of its completely addictive nature, the Blackberry was developed in Canada. Today’s smart phone devices are the descendants of their PDA (personal digital assistant) ancestors. The company, and their operating system, broke new ground when it came to developing email servers and merging into the 3G networks. Blackberry users are very loyal and are hesitant to make a switch to other phones, even when service might be better with another provider or device. 

• Window Mobile 7 : Millions of people are PCs as that commercial of a few years ago so cleverly reminded us. We are running Windows on our home computers and on our laptops and probably using Windows at the office-why not extend that use to the smart phone? The Windows operating system is so closely related to their PC that it is an almost seamless transition from one to the other. Windows mobile offers the best use of (of course) Microsoft products like the Office giants, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

There are so many smart phones on the market today, but the more you understand the operating systems that power them, the better you will be at making your decision about what kind of phone is right for you.