Smartphone operating systems often inspire dire loyalty in their users. Once someone owns an iPhone/Android/Windows Phone they rarely switch. But sometimes it’s good to put emotional attachment aside and take an objective look at what each OS really offers – you never know, you might be persuaded to switch.

Rosemary Hattersley, of PC Advisor, took the time to write a multi-page look at the most recent versions of the iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry operating systems. Here’s a recap of some of the pros and cons of each OS:

iOS 6

Pros

• The latest version of Apple’s mobile OS … offers the broadest choice of apps of all smartphones and comes with plenty of Apple’s own apps.
• The likable Safari web browser supports multiple web pages.
• You can easily add multiple email accounts from Outlook to iCloud Mail, Yahoo, Google and Exchange, then designate contacts as VIPs. You can view inboxes separately or show all messages in a single inbox view. Mail is searchable by name or subject via a field at the top of the screen.
• Integration with audio hardware is impressive via both Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay wireless streaming.
• Aside from the sheer number of apps in the App Store, one of the big advantages of iOS is that Apple curates all apps, so rogue installations (and malware) are less likely than with Android.

Cons

• The lack of support for Flash means some websites don’t work.
• Voice search via the Siri digital assistant is largely a gimmick and requires a Wi-Fi connection to use.
• [Document attachments] can be saved locally only if you have certain apps installed which support those file types.

Android

Pros

• Google Ice Cream Sandwich (the version before the current Jelly Bean) covers all the basics, with fancier media management options (Samsung. HTC and Sony) and prettier weather and contact features (HTC in particular) being added on some handsets by manufacturers.
• One clear advantage is the well-developed Google Maps app. Strong mapping, 3D and satellite views are accompanied by built-in voice-control and turn-by-turn navigation.
• Android also offers built-in voice search, NFC support, screen mirroring and contactless content sharing. You can ‘throw’ photos and music to devices across the room and queue up actions in a form of home automation.
• Google Now (which is now available for iOS devices, albeit in a slightly more limited form) serves up useful information based on your past behaviour, but also on location and time of the day.

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While there are several major players in the mobile OS space, the battle for market share has really only centered around two operating systems; Android and iOS. Both consistently neck-in-neck for market share, Android has taken a slight lead over the past two years. According to TechCrunch, mobile advertising network Jumptap predicts that this trend will only continue:

“As we and the analysts have noted before, we are continuing to see a two-horse race here (or two horses and two ponies, to be exact). But the growth in market share appears to have now reached a peak. Android, as it has for the past two years, will continue to remain in the lead as the most popular platform, with Apple close behind, but gains are now minor compared to years before.”

While Microsoft and Blackberry are the “ponies” of the OS show,  a recent post in the Software Testing Blog says to keep a close eye on Microsoft:

“It’s still up in the air whether Microsoft/Windows will ever give Apple and Google a real run for their money. Plenty of people out there are naysayers and the OS certainly has a lot of catching up to do. But keep your ear to the ground, if little wins like this keep cropping up, we could have a viable third place in the mobile OS race.”

In addition, several OS debuts at Mobile World Congress this year suggest that there may be more than two “ponies” in the race. In fact, there could be 5. According to Jacqueline Seng of CNET:

“This year’s Mobile World Congress saw the debut of upstart mobile operating systems (OS) from Mozilla, Tizen and Canonical.

The three open-source OSes–Firefox, Tizen and Ubuntu Touch–are all hoping to edge in to Android’s turf and monetize on all the cash Google is making through its app store.”   Read more…

Could you handle being all-mobile all the time? I’m talking about throwing away your PC, Ultrabook, tablet, home phone, desk phone and all other tech devices to be nothing less than completely and utterly mobile.

Impossible you say? Well Benjamin Robins, the co-founder of Palador Inc., took this challenge several months ago. Bob Egan of Forbes had an opportunity to interview Ben on his mobile-only personal and professional life. Here’s a look at his interview:

 “For one year, you will work mobile-only. What does that mean?

Mobility is perceived to have many limitations when it comes to getting the job done. My mobile-only initiative offers a counterpoint to debunk the myth that mobile devices are merely for content consumption and not for creation. Mobile-only is about breaking free of the PC paradigm. For the next year, I am working solely from a smartphone as my only compute device.

The idea wasn’t just to replace all the PC equipment with mobile equipment, but to really consolidate the compute experience to a single device. The hypothesis is, do I really need to carry all this stuff around with me or can I accomplish computing, communication and creation from a single device?

While many people talk about the idea of mobile-only, you’re making it a reality.

That’s right. Beyond dispelling the fallacy of mobile limitations, the point of the project is to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. I believe we are at a tipping point in this industry where the mobile ecosystem can support this type of endeavor. I certainly aim to find out. During the course of the year, I am taking stock of my user experience, device performance, information security attributes and the application capabilities.  From a practical sense, these attributes create the divide between the fiction and the realities of people cutting the cord and going mobile only.

For a lot of consumers and business people, their mobile phone is now their only phone. But very few are willing to ditch their desktop or laptop, too. What motivated you to go to that next level?

The genesis for this project had its roots in that I was tired of lugging around so many devices and equipment. Who wants to carry laptops, tablets, and cellphones as we go from place to place? Not me. On top of that, many of us have a desktop in the office and at another one at home. It’s equipment overload. It has become important to me to greatly simplify the physical and emotional weight of technology in my life.  To do that it is important to streamline, yet assemble a posture where I had access to the applications and data that I need with the same level of computing power anytime, anywhere.

…What have been the biggest surprises so far?

Read more…

It’s still no Android or iOS, but the Windows Phone picked up some ground in the European Union during the close of 2012. According to a report by Kantar WorldPanel ComTech, Windows Phones accounted for 5.4% of smartphone sales in the EU in the three months leading up to the winter holidays. From GigaOm:

Windows Phone posted large percentage sales gains over the year ago period in various EU regions:

- Great Britain: 5.9 percent, up from 2.2 percent
- Italy: 13.9 percent, up from 2.8 percent
- Spain: 1.8 percent, up from 0.4 percent

Overall, the gains appear to have come at the cost of both BlackBerry and Symbian devices. The latter is to be expected as Symbian sales have understandably taken a nose dive since Nokia transitioned to Windows Phone starting in February, 2011. As far as BlackBerry sales dropping: That could be due to Research In Motion using 2012 to reset its management team and product focus, sacrificing handset innovation in the process last year.

Read the full article at GigaOm >>>

The spike was helped by the sale of 4.4 million Lumia devices.

The moral of this story? While the mobile world has some clear front runners, it isn’t a two-device show. Don’t ignore the smaller operating systems in your quest for app glory.

Research in Motion (RIM) is ramping up big time for the launch of their hot new Blackberry 10 later this month. In a recent push for apps, RIM received 15,000 app submission for the new (mostly touchscreen) platform in less than 38 hours. The massive wave is thanks to “port-a-thons” RIM held to encourage developers to extend existing apps to the new marketplace. From CRN:

“When we decided to hold a series of Port-A-Thons to help our developer community port their apps over to BlackBerry 10 we had no idea how wildly successful they would be,” the company wrote in its developer blog. “This past weekend’s Port-A-Thons brought in more than 15,000 apps! It has been truly inspiring to see so much excitement and support for BlackBerry 10.”

Those apps still have to be approved before they become available in the Blackberry App World store. Beyond reports about the port-a-thons, there haven’t been any hints about how many apps will be available for BB10, but RIM has been actively focusing on building up the BB10 app base prior to launch. From CNET:

Alec Saunders, RIM’s vice president of developer relations and ecosystem development, told CNET that RIM intends to launch its OS with more apps than any other first-generation operating system.

RIM looks poised to meet that goal. Apple and Android both launched with sparse app collections and Microsoft reported that their app market launched with 7,000 apps, according to the CNET article. When RIM debuted its updated Blackberry App World in September (without BB10 specific apps) it reportedly had a headcount of 105,000 apps, music, movies and tv shows.

It will be interesting to see how many BB10 apps debut later this month. But no matter what goal RIM meets, it still has a long way to go before it catches up with Apple and Android, which are both sitting around the 775,000 available apps mark.

Despite all my preaching and praising, I have yet to convince anyone to get a Windows Phone device. It’s not that I can’t be convincing – or that Windows Phone isn’t great – it’s just that once people get used to a specific device and operating system, they tend to stick with it, for better or worse.

Nobody knows this better than Ben Rudolph, Director of Windows Phone Evangelism. Ben gave a great interview to VentureBeat not too long ago, where he addressed this very topic. Here is an excerpt that pretty much sums it up:

VentureBeat: So a phone is probably the most personal device, right, of  all the electronics that you’ve got. Is it hard to get people to switch to a new  type of phone?

Rudolph: I don’t think it’s hard to switch. Like anything else, when  you try something new, you got to learn it, explore it, find all the settings.  But what’s interesting, I find, is that people who are switching, or even getting a smartphone for the first time … because it’s built around the stuff  that you want to do and the stuff you care about, it’s very intuitive.

I don’t need all of Facebook all the time; I just want to be able to see what  my wife and my best friends are up to. So I pin my wife to my Start screen. I  pin a group of my best friends, and I just get those chunks of Facebook.

So once you break out of that paradigm model of using apps for absolutely everything, once you understand that that’s not the only way you have to do  something, the tile starts to make a lot of sense, and you start pinning and unpinning, and you’re off and running.

VentureBeat: So who’s the most resistant? Is it someone who’s maybe a  feature phone owner or an iPhone owner who’s been an Apple user their entire  life, or is it an Android owner?

Rudolph:  It’s funny. Feature phone users are actually very receptive. If they’re  ready to buy a smartphone, they’re ready to buy our smartphone.

There are a lot of people who have a very heavy emotional attachment to their  phones, but it’s not specifically to the phone, it’s what the phone does, and the things that you accomplish with it.

I do find it interesting (and totally logical) that feature phone users would be open to Windows Phone, or any phone for that matter, as they have no real point of reference. But as Rudolph said, once people choose a smartphone (and the apps that come with it) they tend to have an emotional attachment to it. And that – your emotional attachment – is why you will probably never switch smartphones.

Struggling with mobile fragmentation? There are so many mobile devices on the market today that it can be overwhelming. Crowdsourced testing will help you make sure your app works on a variety of devices (uTest’s Project Managers keep an eye on device popularity to pinpoint the big players) but it’s important to pay attention to the most popular devices earlier in the SDLC. Watching market trends is a good way to figure out what devices people are gravitating toward. And you can’t ask for a better window into consumer behavior than the holiday gift-giving season.

Chitika (a mobile ad network) paid attention to device traffic before Christmas and after the last of the presents were unwrapped. This infographic Chitika created will give you a look at what the hot gifts were this year and which devices are dominating the market overall. While you’re looking at this infographic, remember to take in the ‘Present Share’ numbers along with the ‘Share Change’ – even though iPad’s market share percentage dropped, it’s still blowing everyone else out of the water.

Want more information? Check out this article on TechCrunch >>>

And if you’re looking to add a few more devices to your testing lineup, check out uTest’s mobile app testing options – including the mobile testing tool, Apphance (featuring over the air distribution, automatic crash logs, easy bug reports and more).

This holiday season mobile devices, tablets and apps seemed to be the gift of choice.  According to Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch, a report from mobile analytic firm Flurry shows that 50 million iOS and Android devices were activated during the week of December 25:

“Over 50 million iOS and Android devices were activated during the period between December 25 to December 31, versus just over 20 million devices last year. Users of those and existing devices downloaded 1.76 million apps, a 47 percent increase over the 1.2 billion app downloads during the 2011 holiday week.

Flurry previously reported that 17.4 million iOS and Android devices were activated on Christmas day alone, an increase which likewise shattered previous records. The analytics firm also looked at the breakdown by country of downloads over the week, and found that as per usual, the U.S. accounted for the vast majority of downloads during the holiday period. China and the U.K. followed up in second and third place, and increases versus baseline download rates were more significant in countries including Canada, Germany and France where Christmas is more commonly celebrated than in some other high-performing nations like China and South Korea.”

Flurry didn’t release the iOS vs. Android activation numbers, but TechCrunch says recent Fortune analysis shows that Apple may have taken the lead due to iPad and iPad mini tablet sales. Here’s Flurry’s chart as featured on TechCrunch:

With the increasing number of mobile apps that store your bank information and other private data – having your mobile device lost or stolen is scarier than ever. According to Samantha Murphy of Mashable, 113 mobile devices are lost or stolen each minute in the United States. In addition, Philadelphia seems to be the top city where mobile devices go missing. Take a look at Infographic as posted on Mashable:

It’s been a great ride, but the iPhone 4S is no longer the world’s top-selling smartphone. That distinction now belongs to the Samsung Galaxy S III. Here’s VentureBeat with the details:

“Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone model shipped 18.0 million units worldwide  during the third quarter of 2012,” Neil Shah, a senior analyst with Strategy Analytics said. “The Galaxy S3 captured an  impressive 11 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally.”

In the same quarter, Apple shipped 16.2 million iPhone 4S units. That  second-place finish was partially achieved due to the widely-rumored iPhone 5,  which motivated consumers to hold off on purchases.

While it’s doubtless nice for Samsung to hold the title, the Korean company  should not get too comfortable, says Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics executive  director.

“The Galaxy S3’s position as the world’s best-selling smartphone model is  likely to be short-lived … we expect the new iPhone 5 to out-ship Samsung’s  Galaxy S3 in the coming fourth quarter of 2012 and Apple should soon reclaim the  title of the world’s most popular smartphone model.”

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