Paul Kelly
Smartphone usage has become more and more ubiquitous across campus with 44% of students using them, according to a recent University Times survey. In addition to this, with Wi-Fi access becoming available for smartphones across Trinity within a month, they are fast becoming an essential tool for every student, and most students often look for a worthwhile iPhone trade-in program to always upgrade to one of the newest iPhones and keep up with the updated software. However, although dedicated phone operating systems (OS) have been around since 1996, with the release of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system, these OS’s and the apps available for them have become key to winning our hearts. This was highlighted clearly in Nokia and Microsoft’s partnership last week in producing a Nokia Windows 7 phone. Two years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Now, however, a smartphone’s OS has become its key selling point, rather than its manufacturer. With this in mind, we break down the three most prominent OS’s, to enable you to make the right decision at this critical juncture.
Google’s Android OS, Nokia’s Symbian OS and Apple’s iOS have become the dominant powers in the Irish smartphone market due to their wide app markets. Apple were the first to launch their App Store, resulting in them being light-years ahead of the competition with 314,415 apps- and rising. With the latest iPhone also sporting a 1GHZ processor, an impressive retina 3.5 inch screen and a 5 MP camera, there is little to complain about- as demonstrated by the fact that over 53% of Trinity students now either have a phone running on iOS or would like to. However, although Apple may have the largest, and certainly the best, app market, 75% of these are paid- a by-product of refusing to make their OS open source. In the same vein, the iPhone’s iOS, unlike competing OS’s, is limited to it’s name- you can only get it on the iPhone and, as usual, Apple will charge you an extortionate amount for it (between €670-€700). I was sceptical about why students should have to pay so much and so I went to interview Brian Hannon, the Business and Education Executive at CompuB, Ireland’s only premium Apple reseller. I asked him why Apple felt the necessity to charge such high amounts and he told me it was “the cost of the hardware”. However, when you look at competing smartphones, such as the HTC Desire which also has a 1 GHZ processor, 5 MP camera and a screen 2 inches larger running on Android 2.2, the price is far lower at €440 on Meteor and €420 on Vodafone- a €150 difference. I said as much and was told simply that the iPhone “is a premium product and Apple have priced it as a premium product”, that I was paying not just for the hardware but “for the whole Apple experience”.
iPhone, the most popular choice
In contrast, however, reasonable Android phones start from as little as €115 with a 600 MHZ processor to be found in the Samsung Europa. Herein lies the great strength behind Google’s Android OS, with no ties to any one phone manufacturer, the price continues to plummet, allowing smartphone access for the rest of us. Additionally, one of the best parts of anything Google is that it stays in Beta (if unofficially) for all eternity, meaning Android phones can be continually upgraded with each oncoming version of the OS. With a respectable 135,829 apps, Android Market is easily the App Store’s biggest competitor and most importantly, 57% of these are free. Additionally, as Android’s OS is open source, you can also get some slightly more risqué apps such as PSX4DROID, a Playstation emulator. However, this freedom for developers is also a double edged sword as apps have already been found that can search your smartphone and pull any personal and financial details it can find, as well as listen in to any conversations you have and steal credit card details that way.
Sadly, Nokia’s Symbian OS has been increasingly marginalised between the above giants and it’s easy to see why as, in the new market which relies on apps to sell smartphones, Nokia manage only 43,535 apps- 85% of which are paid. However, Nokia still have the largest market share, with 31% of the market, meaning they are positioned perfectly for a comeback- something Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop, hopes a new Nokia OS powered by Microsoft might achieve. Think X-Box LIVE on your phone. Bearing this in mind, however, it is easy to see the latest battle between smartphone OS’s simply becoming a part of the ancient war between normal computer operating systems, with Google, Microsoft and Apple all competing to provide ease of use in syncing to, or even supplanting your desktop. Google doesn’t yet have its own desktop OS- but do not doubt that it is on the way. The release of Honeycomb (Android 3.0) for tablets has shown that. From this perspective, it is easy to see why Nokia’s Symbian is on its last legs as smartphones and PCs/MACs converge in a larger and more complex design. Smartphones are advancing rapidly and soon they will reach a point where their OS will be your only OS as you get home and just plug it straight into your monitor.
