As Mobile Phones Grow More Complex, Carriers Insist On Fewer Operating Systems

MILAN, March 11 — Two operating systems run more than 95 percent of the worlds computers, but dozens of systems are behind the 2.5 billion mobile phones in circulation, a situation that has hampered the growth of new services, industry executives and independent specialists say.

There are too many operating systems already and more are coming on stream, making things complicated for smaller software companies, said Tony Cripps, a senior analyst with the telecommunications consulting firm Ovum in London.

Mobile phone carriers are watching with more than passing interest because the new applications they are counting on to increase revenue and profit may make it to only a limited number of phones as software developers struggle to keep up with the different operating systems.

Having multiple systems is also time-consuming and costly for the carriers, which must configure the phones they sell.

Vodafone, the worlds largest mobile phone company in terms of revenue, has been leading a push to limit the number of operating systems, declaring in November that it would eventually sell only phones that ran on Microsofts Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60 or Linux. For more than a year, NTT DoCoMo of Japan has concentrated on Symbian, a privately held British-based company in which Nokia of Finland has a nearly 50 percent stake, and Linux.

What Vodafone did by choosing a few was inevitable, a Symbian executive vice president, Andy Brannan, said.

Arun Sarin, the Vodafone chief executive, said last month: We need to reduce the number of operating systems on phones. Im not saying bring it down to one, but several. With fewer operating systems, it will be easier for content delivery.

Most mobile phone manufacturers use internally developed software to run their simpler phones. But smart phones, high-end devices that have access to the Internet and send e-mail, run on operating systems created by other companies. Mr. Brannan said that in the future, only the most basic phones would run on operating systems developed by the phone makers.

Last year, two-thirds of smart phones sold ran on Symbians operating system, an increase of about four percentage points from 2005, according to Canalys, a consultant and market research firm based near London. Microsoft was second last year with a 14 percent market share, slightly less than the year before, followed by Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, with 7 percent, and Linux, with 6 percent, according to Canalys.

Having so many operating systems makes it expensive to make software, said Faraz Hoodbhoy, the chief executive of PixSense, whose software helps users of camera phones save and share multimedia content.

Its not like with computers, where anybody who has an Internet connection can download your software, he said. The barrier to innovation is higher in the mobile world.

What operating system a software developer decides to concentrate on first will most likely depend on what geographic area and type of user it is trying to attract, Mr. Cripps, the Ovum analyst, said. Windows Mobile is stronger in North America and with business users, while Symbian is dominant in Europe and with nonbusiness customers.

But despite the moves by Vodafone, DoCoMo and other service providers, the huge size of the mobile phone market will ensure that smaller operating systems survive, Mr. Cripps and several executives said.

Fabrizio Capobianco, chief executive of Funambol, an open-source software company based in Redwood City, Calif., that has developed a highly popular e-mail program for mobile devices, said, I dont see convergence of the operating systems happening anytime soon.

Citing Apples new phone, Mr. Capobianco, who began as a technology entrepreneur in Italy, added, Vodafone is trying to standardize by going with three operating systems, but now the iPhone is coming, so they will have to have at least four.

Tag Cloud

External Information

Additional Information

Where Am I?