If you can count off how many new mobile OS’ we have seen in the past couple of years and how many were launched at this year’s MWC, you will know what I mean. It all started with the iPhone. Then Google rose to the challenge and brought forth the Android. For a while, it was good. Then Palm went on ahead and placed their bet on the table as the WebOS. Even then it was good. Palm basically started fizzling out and no really gave a damn.
Both Android and the iPhone grew through the last year and the iPhone still stayed ahead in certain areas. Then Nokia’s Moblin was brought into the limelight long after its original conception. Of course, it was no threat to the reigning or even the flagging Mobile OS’. So all was quite. Then, last year itself, Nokia showed us how it plans to counter the iPhone/Android on slaught — Maemo 5.
Make no mistake, Apple still has tricks up its sleeves!
Maemo 5 was backed by a dedicated developer base. It was Linux and open source and it was Nokia, so even though it did not look particularly ground breaking, we gave it some attention. And then Samsgun did it. They announced that they too were making their own OS and it is called Bada. The Onomatopoeic jokes ensued. They gave out a vague list of features which basically outlined that operators would be able to do what they wanted with the OS and that they would be aiming right below the oh so expensive smartphones. Things started getting ugly and they hadn’t even released the thing in any way.
Then came this year’s MWC and what an event it has been. Microsoft definitely stole the show with their expectedly badly named and unexpectedly well-made mobile OS. Samsung confused everyone in attendance with the official launch of the Bada OS. My impression of the OS so far is of a well-funded hack job that combines every good feature of popular OS’ and puts them together into a hideous Chimera. Like those chinese phones that have 5 cameras, 4 speakers, 10 LED lights and two SIM slots. I kid you not. There are phones like that.
It could’ve ended there. We could’ve come away only mildly disturbed. But it did not. Intel and Nokia have been getting intimate for quite some time now and this time they have really crossed some kind of a threshold. They have merged their only hopes against the increasingly threatening competition — Moblin and Maemo and have created a franken OS called MeeGo.
In what world it makes sense to hype up an OS, ask developers to support it and then pull it apart together, I have no clue. But Nokia has most certainly lost it and is acting like someone who is really desperate. Combining Maemo and Moblin basically won’t be impossible — they are both build on Linux kernels. But the resulting product would need fresh development and the companies we are talking about are already late in the game. Intel might have other fish to fry (namely ARM) but for Nokia, the phone business is all they have. I can now imagine the ire of all those early adopters of the N900. They are definitely gnashing their teeth right now.
I won’t even comment about Samsung. They make great displays and TV’s and all but this one is acting as good entertainment fodder for the world at large and that is not helping them any.
Over all, there are only 3 OS’ that have enough potential to carry on the battle into the future and you know which ones they are. Windows Phone 7 Series (that horrendous name again!), Android and the iPhone OS are going to make the future. The others have already shown how lame they are. And if you think I forgot about Symbian 4, I did not. I did post about it earlier and I couldn’t bear reliving the sadness I felt while watching the demo videos. So just read it here.
