Top 7 hot mobile operating systems for 2013

The growth of smartphone has been phenomenal in the recent past few years, from 122.3 million in 2007; it has touched 467.11 million till last year. Now, you can expect similar boost in the ongoing year. There are few players like Apple and Google who has been dominating in developing some of the best mobile operating systems in the past few years. With Android and iOS, things have really changed in the smartphone world. Apart from these two, there are several other hot mobile operating systems, which are likely to remain over the top in the coming years especially in 2013. Let’s have a look at some of the top 7 hot mobile operating systems for 2013.

1). Google Android

Around 33 percent of smartphones operate on Android, which is an open source and Linux based OS backed by the giant search engine – Google, along with the big hardware and software players like Samsung, HTC, ARM, Motorola, Ebay (falling under Open Handset Alliance). Google simply operates the official Android Market that carries out around 150,000 apps, with more than 3.7 billion downloads. The current Android version is Android 4.1, and more advance versions are likely to remain on the top over the coming years.

2). Apple iOS

Around 16 percent of mobile devices are iPhones which operate on Apple’s operating system known as iOS. It is among the closed source operating system. Currently, you can find more than 400,000 apps being supported by iOS, including a couple of third party apps with more than 10 billion applications downloads. The current version found in this operating system is iOS 4. This operating system- iOS is developed by Apple and is often used in all its devices, which are manufactured by Foxconn or several other partners of Apple. You can expect iOS to dominate in the coming years with several more advance versions.

3). Blackberry RIM

It is a closed source mobile OS which constitutes 15 percent of all the smartphones. Blackberry RIM started as the enterprise solution, and could still be seen the same but at the same time, it has also developed a good consumer base in the market. Recently, it has seen a sudden increase in third party applications and has therefore embarked to cater a complete new and enhanced multimedia support for its users. The BlackBerry 10 which was previously known as BlackBerry BBX is among the next generation platform for smartphone users.

4). Symbian

Around 31 percent of all the cell phones run over Symbian, which is an open source OS, with majority are the feature phones (otherwise called as dumb phone as contrast to the smartphones). Nokia is among the top shareholder and customer of Symbian, whereas the other brands which run this OS include Sharp, Samsung, Fujitsu, and Sony Ericsson. Nokia has now handed over the development part of this mobile OS to Accenture, which is going to support Symbian till 2016.

5). Windows Phone

Around 5 percent of smartphone devices operate on Windows Phone, which simply took over where the Windows Mobile simply left off. This is basically a closed source OS, which could be managed via Microsoft Exchange. This mobile operating system simply embarked with a user interface inspired by Metro Design Language from Microsoft. It comes with full integration with all the MS services including Windows Live, Xbox Live, Zune, and Bing, but at the same time also integrates with several non-Microsoft services including Google accounts and Facebook. It has got a positive response in the current smartphone market.

6). Bada

It is among the close source operating system, which was developed by Samsung Electronics. Currently, it is more used for feature phones; however, the company claims to convert these phones into smartphones very soon. The first phone which runs over this OS is known as Wave, which is a complete touchscreen based device operating over Bada.

7). S40 or Series40

Nokia used this mobile operating system in all the low end phones (or call them as feature phones). It is among the closed source operating system. In these years, around 150 different phone models are seen using the Series 40 OS. Since its launch, this OS has developed from as a monochrome low resolution user interface to a full touch 256K color based user interface (UI).

Final word

These seven mobile OS are among the top hot operating systems for different cell phones (including smartphone and feature phones) since past few years and are likely to dominate in the coming years. You can expect several enhanced level versions in the coming year 2013 from these players behind different mobile operating systems.

Author Bio: Diana is a part time writer and a blogger. She writes on many sites which is related to fashion, sports, social issues etc. But these days she is busy to writing on iPhone and Android apps. She loves to write on women’s health.