Are there too many OS’s?
Mobile carriers sick of so many operating systems
It seems that all too often we compare the mobile phone/smartphone market to the PC market. I would argue that it is becoming more and more obvious that smartphones are a completely different animal, but it seems several of the worlds largest carriers don’t agree.
"There are too many operating systems already and more are coming on stream, making things complicated for smaller software companies," - Tony Cripps, Senior Analyst, Ovum
The carriers are becoming concerned because they expect developers to keep up with the operating systems and make their software available across the board. Much of their revenue comes from software so they need applications to be available for a large variety of devices to maximize their revenue.
Some carriers seem confident that they can force this issue to be resolved by not handling all handheld platforms. Vodafone has said that in the future they will only handle Windows Mobile, S60 (Symbian), and Linux.
"We need to reduce the number of operating systems on phones. I'm not saying bring it down to one, but several. With fewer operating systems, it will be easier for content delivery." - Arun Sarin, Chief Executive, Vodafone
If larger carriers choose to only support a few platforms, does this mean the ‘niche’ operating systems will go away? I would guess not. There will always be room for competition, and chances are good that the operating systems that are most popular now will be quite different than the most popular OS’s 5 or 10 years from now (iPhone? Java?). The competition in this market is part of what makes innovations happen so quickly. We have to remember that the smartphone market is NOT the PC market, and I hope the carriers don’t use their muscle to take it down that path.