Smartphone: Encyclopedia II - Smartphone - 2005 OS Market Share

Smartphone - 2005 OS Market Share

Thanks to Nokia's market dominance in 2005, Symbian is the current leader with over 62.8% market share in Q2 according to Canalys, a market research firm, and is used by five different smartphone platforms. Three of the platforms are developed by Nokia (Series 60, Series 80 & Series 90), a fourth is developed by NTT DoCoMo for the Japanese market and the final one is developed by a subsidiary of Symbian itself (UIQ). Contrary to the information published on PalmSource's website, Symbian OS v8.0 is largely backwardly compatible with previous versions. However Canalys also indicates that Microsoft OS is also increasing with a markets share of 15.9 % and an increase of 42% from Q2'04.

Smartphones are voice-centric (voice is the primary function, data is secondary) devices that offer PDA-like capabilities, whereas PDAs (such as most BlackBerries) may offer voice capabilities, but they are data-centric. Smartphones are generally capable of one-handed operation, while PDAs generally require use of both hands.

Smartphone features tend to include Internet access, e-mail access, scheduling software, built-in camera, contact management, GPS navigation software and occasionally the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office. In the CTIA conference held in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2004, incorporation of television into the smartphone was among the topics discussed.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "2005 OS Market Share", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki