12 May 2008

Mobile OS
The complexities of simplicity?

In my usual daily search over the numerous blogs, sites and forums that I read frequently, I came across an interesting article that you might like to read it.

Jason Ankeny from over at FierceMobileContent shares his though on the Mobile operating systems, Symbian, Linux, Android and more particularly on the Apple's iPhone and its changing role in today's Smartphone market in US.

Sick of hearing about Apple's iPhone? Just think how the computing giant's rivals must feel. According to web measurement and analytics firm Net Applications' March operating system market survey, in less than a year since its launch, the iPhone already controls 0.15 percent of total OS market share in the U.S.--nine percentage points higher than Windows Mobile and 13 percentage points above Symbian's Series 60 platform. But does the iPhone's success underscore the critical importance of the OS to the overall mobile user experience? Not necessarily.

According to David Wood, executive vice president of research with Symbian, the mobile OS doesn't determine the overall mobile user experience so much as it enables it. "It's easy to do something complex, but hard to do something simple," Wood says. "The user interface is trying to convey the impression of simplicity to the user for what is a fairly complicated thing underneath, and that requires a lot of sophisticated software. The OS has multiple layers the UI depends on."

In light of Apple's vaunted design proficiency and user-friendliness, the iPhone's success does validate the notion that the mobile OS must work in close harmony with the device it powers. "With the best devices, there's a synergy between OS development and hardware development," says Frank Tyneski, executive director of the Industrial Designers Society of America professional association as well as the director of design integration for Research In Motion from 2002 to 2005. "Some Windows Mobile products are more like a collection of parts that don't come together like an orchestra."

Another significant complexity impacting the mobile user experience is OS fragmentation: Besides iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian, mobile Linux continues to stake out an increasing share of the OS landscape as well. With so many rival operating systems and so many different devices in the mix, consumers inevitably struggle as they upgrade from one handset to the next. "If you rent a car at the airport, you have a good idea where the controls are, but driving a new device is like sitting in a completely different environment, which can be very frustrating," Tyneski says.