Mobile application development
Web Programming and Technologies Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology 94 pag.
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TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MOMBASA A Centre of Excellence
INSTITUTE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
CCI4404: MOBILE APPLICATIO DEVELOPMENT
TOPIC II
Presented by GATIMU
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Multiplatform mobile application development The cross-platform app market and the amount of cross platform mobile app development tools is on the rise. So which are the best platforms, resources and tools to code for iOS, Android, Windows and more all at the same time? There are advantages to native applications, but a well-made cross-platform mobile app will make the differences seem small and carry the advantage that users on more than one platform have access to your product or service. It refers to the development of mobile apps that can be used on multiple mobile platforms. In the business world, a growing trend called BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is rising. BYOD refers to employees bringing their own personal mobile device into the workplace to be used in place of traditional desktop computers or company-provided mobile devices for accessing company applications and data. Because of BYOD, it has become necessary for businesses to develop their corporate mobile apps and be able to send them to many different mobile devices that operate on various networks and use different operating systems.
Cross-platform mobile development can either involve a company developing the original app on a native platform (which could be iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry/RIM, etc.) or developing the original app in a singular environment for development that will then allow the app to be sent to many different native platforms. There are both pros and cons to cross-platform mobile app development. These tools are useful because they decrease costs and increase the speed at which apps are developed. In addition, cross-platform mobile development tools are generally quite simple to use as they are based off of the common languages for scripting, including CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.
However, cross-platform mobile development does have a few drawbacks.
First, mobile operating systems are frequently updated. Whenever a mobile operating system receives a new update, the applications must also be updated to be compatible with the new system.
In addition, rendering times with cross-platform mobile development may be longer as each operating system needs a separate set of code.
It‘s divided in the following sections:
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Major Cross-Platform Development Tools Cross-platform App Editors and IDEs Languages
Major Cross-Platform Development Tools The best cross platform mobile development tools, both because of the number of options they offer and their ease of use. Xamarin PhoneGap Sencha Appcelerator iFactr Kony AlphaAnywhere Redhat
Xamarin
Xamarin has been going from strength-to-strength recently, attracting a record-setting $54m investment and methodically building out its platform and expanding its reach. Over the last year or so since the release of Xamarin 2, the company has certainly emerged as one of the leading solutions for cross-platform development. Xamarin is also very keen to emphasise its business credentials with the recent announcements of enterprise partnerships with IBM, Xoriant and – last year – with Microsoft. Business subscriptions start at $83 per month. A free trial is available A tutorial on using Xamarin’s platform PhoneGap
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PhoneGap is probably the most well-known cross platform development brand within the development community. The now Adobe-owned tool is based on the open source Apache Cordova project and is completely free to use, which goes some way to explain its popularity. Adobe is also working on an enterprise version of PhoneGap, which is currently undergoing a beta trial – and you can sign-up for it here. The enterprise version boasts marketing features via Adobe‘s Marketing Cloud, so when it launches it will probably be monetised. Sencha
Sencha offers a variety of tools for cross platform app development such as Sencha Architect, Sencha Animator, and more. It‘s main product for enterprise users is Ext JS 5, which lets developers create HTML5 apps, which can then be converted into native apps with PhoneGap. Sencha‘s HTML5-focused approach allow its apps to run across browsers as well as the latest touch-based devices and has attracted clients such as Google, CNN and Samsung. The platform is priced at $3,225 per year for up to five developers and then $12,495 per year for up to 20 developers. Appcelerator
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Appcelerator is an enterprise-focused development platform that lets developers write JavaScript with its Alloy MVC framework. The use of JavaScript is helpful, as many developers will already be familiar with the language, reducing the need to spend time getting to grips with unfamiliar code. Appcelerator also offers a virtual private cloud option for enterprise customers, which is great news if you work with sensitive company data. The enterprise product also comes with analytics, performance management and monitoring and dedicated infrastructure. But you‘ll have to contact them directly for pricing iFactr
iFactr is designed mainly for enterprises looking to quickly build out apps for their mobile workers. The company says its platform offers a very low learning curve, allowing developers to get to grips with the basics within two to three days of training. iFactr also promotes its robust prototyping features, allowing companies to rapidly create prototypes for their employees to test out. The iFactr platform uses Xamarin to compile its native apps on iOS and Android, while PhoneGap is also built into the tool. You can request an evaluation version of iFactr right here. An introduction to iFactr Kony
Kony offers a range of tools as part of its enterprise Mobility Platform to help business create apps from a single codebase. The Studio platform uses JavaScript and features simple drag and drop reusable widgets and the ability to import existing or third party libraries. Furthermore, Kony recently launched its Mobile Fabric platform, which it claims is the first enterprise app development solution to bring together multiple cloud service and middleware tools. Pricing for Mobile Fabric starts at $15 per user, per month. A free trial is available. Alpha Anywhere
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Alpha Anywhere‘s enterprise-focused solution lets you build apps for the major mobile platforms, as well as for PCs and Macs. The tool uses JavaScript and HTML5 and helps companies manage the complete end-to-end app development process. The company recently launched built-in support for offline apps, which allows mobile workers to use enterprise apps without an internet connection, ensuring that they properly synchronize when back online and resolve any conflicts in an intuitive manner. Alpha Anywhere starts at $1,999 for a one year contract. Businesses can also purchase a one month trial version for $199. A guide on building Android apps on Alpha Anywhere RedHat
Redhat‗s platform was formerly known as FeedHenry before acquired by the company for around 63.5 million euros. Redhat offers a mobile backend-as-a-service platform and cross app development platform, letting enterprise users build and deploy iOS, Android and Windows Phone apps via public clouds. The company also works with some big clients, such as airline Aer Lingus, and partners with tech innovators such as AWS and Rackspace. Bringing agility to enterprise mobility These are the biggest ones, but if you‘re still not satisfied…
Other Editors and IDEs If you‘re looking for something a little more niche, or for very simple mobile application development platforms which will create basic apps but are easy to learn, then look no further. IntelliJ – Open source and usable for commercial development, this IDE made by JetBrains is the de-facto standard for Java development in Android, but can also be used for cross-platform. Visual Studio – Being a Microsoft product, you know this is going to be a well-published IDE, but once again, the interface and level of detail make this more suitable for those with some experience under their belt.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Cocos2D – 2D apps made easy, especially for iOS, with this major development tool. Builds from a single codebase and covers C++, JavaScript, Swift and Objective-C. Qt – Boasts that 8 of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies use its interface-led tool for creating cross-platform applications. BiznessApps – Affordable HTML5, iOS and Android platform made with small and medium business apps in mind. MobinCube – A simple interface for building consumer apps, boasts 100,000+ mobile applications created with its platform and over 126 million downloads. AppsMoment – One of the ―coding-less‖ platforms to create apps without having to learn the language underneath. 300+ templates, 120 features and also covers Kindle apps. RubyMotion – Allows you to code, run and test iOS, OSX and Android apps on any device. A huge set of tools and resources, allows to implement 3rd party libraries and has been used by salesforce and BaseCamp, among others. Ionic – Used to build over two million apps, this open source tool is free at signup and through development, its pricing plan of $39/month only starting when your first app is published. There are higher tiers for more features. Dropsource – One of the newer options in this list, a browser-based app builder that lets you create native apps for iOS and Android with its automated programming. Yapp – Specific, simple and quick, an app-builder for events, conferences and meetings. Corona – While focused on games and 2D development, this popular builder can also create ―normal apps‖ and has a very wide user- and knowledge-base. Build Games for Mobile, TV, and Desktop using Corona SDK Kinvey – Back-end service specific for mobile apps and can be applied cross platform. Mag+ – This SDK is compatible with most languages, allowing you to code on top of pre- existing projects. Also has an iPad-specific app. Xojo – As well as covering the desktop, mobile and iOS, it is one of the few tools that lets you code for Raspberry Pi. The company also offers cloud hosting, but the platform does not produce Android apps. Coding environments are all well and good, but you should probably know about the underlying languages too.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Languages Java – The mobile cross-platform language ‗par excellence‘, you really can‘t go wrong by using this for apps compatible almost anywhere. C++ – A lower language than Java, and an extremely useful one at that – it is basically ubiquitous. Not the first recommendation because it often puts extra strain on a mobile‘s resources. C# – The Microsoft world equivalent of Objective-C for Mac, but it is quickly becoming a favourite for cross-platform web apps. HTML5 – The HTML5 standard will make your apps compatible on desktop as well – indeed, that‘s what it was designed for. Still being improved, but very strong when coupled with JavaScript (below). JavaScript – The scripting language for HTML5, isn‘t particularly useful on its own but when running alongside HTML5 results in highly effective apps. Ruby – One of the newer languages here, it was designed specifically for mobile and to be as simple (and resource-light) as possible. Once you‘ve chosen a language, stick with it by following these tutorials. Language Tutorials There are plenty of tutorials for all the major languages, but here is a selection of some of the best one. Java The Java Tutorials – The official tutorials by Oracle on the Java language. Javanotes – If you prefer reading to sitting in front of a computer, a book on learning Java could be your thing. Freeware Java – Very useful and in-depth Java tutorial recommended by the /r/learnjava subreddit. Tutorialspoint – Highly rated, modular tutorial. C++ Engineer for Free – An entire youtube course (47 videos) for learning C++, organised into a single website. Penguin Programmer – One of the few text-based tutorials on C++ available online.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Derek Banas – We‘ve featured Derek on this website before, as his tutorials are outstanding, and this one is really worthwhile looking over: at over an hour long, it covers all you need to get started! C# C# Fundamentals for Absolute Beginners – If you haven‘t coded for a minute throughout your life, this is still a great place to start. Absolute basics to advanced concepts of object-oriented programming. Kudvenkat – Another great place for beginners, this Youtube series currently numbers 100 videos. Part 1 – C# Tutorial – Introduction Source: youtube.com JavaScript /r/LearnJavaScript – When reddit does a good help forum, it does it very well. Plenty of resources and a friendly community. Mozilla Developer Network – Coupled with HTML and CSS courses by the same developer network, a total resource for developing cross-platform apps. Eloquent JavaScript – On occasion we like to recommend a book or other ―long form‖ tutorial – this ebook on JavaScript is illustrated and available in multiple languages, as well as highly recommended. Ruby Ruby Koans – A very well structured, hands-on Ruby tutorial which presents problems for you to solve on your path to learning the language. Almost zen in its conception.. The Well-Grounded Rubyist – Another excellent book which can be read throughout or tackled one example at a time. Pragmatic Studio – Starts free before moving to a paid model, but these are well explained and thought-out tutorials made by professionals in the business. HTML5 Codecademy – One of the best places to learn programming online, full-stop. Check out both their html course and JavaScript. The New Boston – We‘ve recommended them before – among the best youtube tutorial series out there. Extremely useful, and not just for HTML.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) HTML5 Tutorial – 1 – Introduction Source: youtube.com Html-5-Tutorial – Does what it says on the tin really. Breaks down the essentials of HTML very well. iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that presently powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It is the second most popular mobile operating system globally after Android.
Originally unveiled in 2007 for the iPhone, iOS has been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPod Touch(September 2007) and the iPad (January 2010). As of January 2017, Apple's App Store contains more than 2.2 million iOS applications, 1 million of which are native for iPads. These mobile apps have collectively been downloaded more than 130 billion times.
The iOS user interface is based upon direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system and its multi-touch interface. Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or rotating it in three dimensions (one common result is switching between portrait and landscape mode). Apple has been significantly praised for incorporating thorough accessibility functions into iOS, enabling users with vision and hearing disabilities to properly use its products.
Major versions of iOS are released annually. The current version, iOS 11, was released on September 19, 2017. It is available for all iOS devices with 64-bit processors; the iPhone 5S and later iPhone models, the iPad (2017), the iPad Air and later iPad Air models, all iPad Pro models, the iPad Mini 2 and later iPad Mini models, and the sixth-generation iPod Touch.
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Software updates
Platform usage as measured by the App Store on September 3, 2018.
iOS 11 (85%) iOS 10 (10%) iOS 9 and earlier (5%)
Apple provides major updates to the iOS operating system annually via iTunes and also, for iOS 5 and later, over-the-air.[48] The latest version is iOS 11, released on September 19, 2017.[49] It is available for iPhone 5S and later, iPad Air and later, iPad Pro, iPad Mini 2 and later, and sixth- generation iPod Touch.[50]
Originally, iPod Touch users had to pay for system software updates. This was due to accounting rules making the device not a "subscription device" like iPhone or Apple TV, and significant enhancements to the device required payments.[51][52] The requirement to pay to upgrade caused iPod Touch owners to stay away from updates.[53] However, in September 2009, a change in accounting rules won tentative approval, significantly affecting both Apple's earnings and stock price, and allowing iPod Touch updates to be delivered for free.[54][55]
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Home screen
iOS 11 running on an iPhone (left) and on an iPad Pro (right)
The home screen, rendered by SpringBoard, displays application icons and a dock at the bottom where users can pin their most frequently used apps. The home screen appears whenever the user unlocks the device or presses the physical "Home" button whilst in another app.[56] Before iOS 4 on the iPhone 3GS (or later), the screen's background could be customized only
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) through jailbreaking, but can now be changed out-of-the-box. The screen has a status bar across the top to display data, such as time, battery level, and signal strength. The rest of the screen is devoted to the current application. When a passcode is set and a user switches on the device, the passcode must be entered at the Lock Screen before access to the Home screen is granted.[57]
In iPhone OS 3, Spotlight was introduced, allowing users to search media, apps, emails, contacts, messages, reminders, calendar events, and similar content. In iOS 7 and later, Spotlight is accessed by pulling down anywhere on the home screen (except for the top and bottom edges that open Notification Center and Control Center).[58][59] In iOS 9, there are two ways to access Spotlight. As with iOS 7 and 8, pulling down on any homescreen will show Spotlight. However, it can also be accessed as it was in iOS 3 – 6. This gives a Spotlight endowed with Siri suggestions, which include app suggestions, contact suggestions and news.[60] In iOS 10, Spotlight is at the top of the now-dedicated "Today" panel.[61]
Since iOS 3.2, users are able to set a background image for the Home screen. This feature is only available on third-generation devices—iPhone 3GS, third-generation iPod touch (iOS 4.0 or newer), all iPad models (since iOS 3.2)—or newer.
Researchers found that users organize icons on their homescreens based on usage-frequency and relatedness of the applications, as well as for reasons of usability and aesthetics.[62]
System font iOS originally used Helvetica as the system font. Apple switched to Helvetica Neue exclusively for the iPhone 4 and its Retina Display, and retained Helvetica as the system font for older iPhone devices on iOS 4.[63] With iOS 7, Apple announced that they would change the system font to Helvetica Neue Light, a decision that sparked criticism for inappropriate usage of a light, thin typeface for low-resolution mobile screens. Apple eventually chose Helvetica Neue instead.[64][65] The release of iOS 7 also introduced the ability to scale text or apply other forms of text accessibility changes through Settings.[66][67] With iOS 9, Apple changed the font to San Francisco, an Apple-designed font aimed at maximum legibility and font consistency across its product lineup.[68][69]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Folders iOS 4 introduced folders, which can be created by dragging an application on top of another, and from then on, more items can be added to the folder using the same procedure. A title for the folder is automatically selected by the category of applications inside, but the name can also be edited by the user.[70] When apps inside folders receive notification badges, the individual numbers of notifications are added up and the total number is displayed as a notification badge on the folder itself.[70] Originally, folders on an iPhone could include up to 12 apps, while folders on iPad could include 20.[71] With increasing display sizes on newer iPhone hardware, iOS 7 updated the folders with pages similar to the home screen layout, allowing for a significant expansion of folder functionality. Each page of a folder can contain up to nine apps, and there can be 15 pages in total, allowing for a total of 135 apps in a single folder.[72] In iOS 9, Apple updated folder sizes for iPad hardware, allowing for 16 apps per page, still at 15 pages maximum, increasing the total to 240 apps.[73]
Notification Center
Before iOS 5, notifications were delivered in a modal window and couldn't be viewed after being dismissed. In iOS 5, Apple introduced Notification Center, which allows users to view a history of notifications. The user can tap a notification to open its corresponding app, or clear it.[74] Notifications are now delivered in banners that appear briefly at the top of the screen. If a user taps a received notification, the application that sent the notification will be opened. Users can also choose to view notifications in modal alert windows by adjusting the application's notification settings. Introduced with iOS 8, widgets are now accessible through the Notification Center, defined by 3rd parties.
When an app sends a notification while closed, a red badge appears on its icon. This badge tells the user, at a glance, how many notifications that app has sent. Opening the app clears the badge.
Accessibility iOS offers various accessibility features to help users with vision and hearing disabilities. One major feature, VoiceOver, provides a voice reading information on the screen, including contextual buttons, icons, links and other user interface elements, and allows the user to navigate the operating system through gestures. Any apps with default controls and developed with a
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) UIKit framework gets VoiceOver functionality built in.[75] One example includes holding up the iPhone to take a photo, with VoiceOver describing the photo scenery.[76] As part of a "Made for iPhone" program, introduced with the release of iOS 7 in 2013, Apple has developed technology to use Bluetooth and a special technology protocol to let compatible third-party equipment connect with iPhones and iPads for streaming audio directly to a user's ears. Additional customization available for Made for iPhone products include battery tracking and adjustable sound settings for different environments.[77][78] Apple made further efforts for accessibility for the release of iOS 10 in 2016, adding a new pronunciation editor to VoiceOver, adding a Magnifier setting to enlarge objects through the device's camera, software TTY support for deaf people to make phone calls from the iPhone, and giving tutorials and guidelines for third-party developers to incorporate proper accessibility functions into their apps.[79]
In 2012, Liat Kornowski from The Atlantic wrote that "the iPhone has turned out to be one of the most revolutionary developments since the invention of Braille",[80] and in 2016, Steven Aquino of TechCrunch described Apple as "leading the way in assistive technology", with Sarah Herrlinger, Senior Manager for Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives at Apple, stating that "We see accessibility as a basic human right. Building into the core of our products supports a vision of an inclusive world where opportunity and access to information are barrier-free, empowering individuals with disabilities to achieve their goals".[81]
Multitasking
Implementation of multitasking in iOS has been criticized for its approach, which limits the work that applications in the background can perform to a limited function set and requires application developers to add explicit support for it.[84][87]
Before iOS 4, multitasking was limited to a selection of the applications Apple included on the device. Users could, however "jailbreak" their device in order to unofficially multitask.[88]Starting with iOS 4, on third-generation and newer iOS devices, multitasking is supported through seven background APIs:[89]
1. Background audio – application continues to run in the background as long as it is playing audio or video content[90] 2. Voice over IP – application is suspended when a phone call is not in progress[90]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) 3. Background location – application is notified of location changes[90] 4. Push notifications 5. Local notifications – application schedules local notifications to be delivered at a predetermined time[90] 6. Task completion – application asks the system for extra time to complete a given task[90] 7. Fast app switching – application does not execute any code and may be removed from memory at any time[90]
In iOS 5, three new background APIs were introduced:
1. Newsstand – application can download content in the background to be ready for the user[90] 2. External Accessory – application communicates with an external accessory and shares data at regular intervals[90] 3. Bluetooth Accessory – application communicates with a bluetooth accessory and shares data at regular intervals[90]
In iOS 7, Apple introduced a new multitasking feature, providing all apps with the ability to perform background updates. This feature prefers to update the user's most frequently used apps and prefers to use WiFi networks over a cellular network, without markedly reducing the device's battery life.
Switching applications
In iOS 4.0 to iOS 6.x, double-clicking the home button activates the application switcher. A scrollable dock-like interface appears from the bottom, moving the contents of the screen up. Choosing an icon switches to an application. To the far left are icons which function as music controls, a rotation lock, and on iOS 4.2 and above, a volume controller.
With the introduction of iOS 7, double clicking the home button also activates the application switcher. However, unlike previous versions it displays screenshots of open applications on top of the icon and horizontal scrolling allows for browsing through previous apps, and it is possible to close applications by dragging them up, similar to how WebOS handled multiple cards.[91]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) With the introduction of iOS 9, the application switcher received a significant visual change; whilst still retaining the card metaphor introduced in iOS 7, the application icon is smaller, and appears above the screenshot (which is now larger, due to the removal of "Recent and Favorite Contacts"), and each application "card" overlaps the other, forming a rolodexeffect as the user scrolls. Now, instead of the home screen appearing at the leftmost of the application switcher, it appears rightmost.[92] In iOS 11, the application switcher receives a major redesign. In the iPad, the Control Center and app switcher are combined. The app switcher in the iPad can also be accessed by swiping up from the bottom. In the iPhone, the app switcher cannot be accessed if there are no apps in the RAM.
Ending tasks
In iOS 4.0 to iOS 6.x, briefly holding the icons in the application switcher makes them "jiggle" (similarly to the homescreen) and allows the user to force quit the applications by tapping the red minus circle that appears at the corner of the app's icon.[93] Clearing applications from multitasking stayed the same from iOS 4.0 through 6.1.6, the last version of iOS 6.
As of iOS 7, the process has become faster and easier. In iOS 7, instead of holding the icons to close them, they are closed by simply swiping them upwards off the screen. Up to three apps can be cleared at a time compared to one in versions up to iOS 6.1.6.[94]
Task completion
Task completion allows apps to continue a certain task after the app has been suspended.[95][96] As of iOS 4.0, apps can request up to ten minutes to complete a task in the background.[97] This doesn't extend to background up- and downloads though (e.g. if you start a download in one application, it won't finish if you switch away from the application).
Siri Main article: Siri
Siri (/ˈsɪəri/) is an intelligent personal assistant integrated into iOS. The assistant uses voice queries and a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Internet services. The software adapts to users' individual language usages, searches, and preferences, with continuing use. Returned results are individualized.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Originally released as an app for iOS in February 2010,[98] it was acquired by Apple two months later,[99][100][101] and then integrated into iPhone 4S at its release in October 2011.[102][103] At that time, the separate app was also removed from the iOS App Store.[104]
Siri supports a wide range of user commands, including performing phone actions, checking basic information, scheduling events and reminders, handling device settings, searching the Internet, navigating areas, finding information on entertainment, and is able to engage with iOS- integrated apps.[105] With the release of iOS 10 in 2016, Apple opened up limited third-party access to Siri, including third-party messaging apps, as well as payments, ride-sharing, and Internet calling apps.[106][107] With the release of iOS 11, Apple updated Siri's voices for more clear, human voices, it now supports follow-up questions and language translation, and additional third-party actions.[108][109
Game Center
Game Center is an online multiplayer "social gaming network"[110] released by Apple.[111] It allows users to "invite friends to play a game, start a multiplayer game through matchmaking, track their achievements, and compare their high scores on a leaderboard." iOS 5 and above adds support for profile photos.[110]
Game Center was announced during an iOS 4 preview event hosted by Apple on April 8, 2010. A preview was released to registered Apple developers in August.[110] It was released on September 8, 2010 with iOS 4.1 on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch 2nd generation through 4th generation.[112] Game Center made its public debut on the iPad with iOS 4.2.1.[113] There is no support for the iPhone 3G, original iPhone and the first-generation iPod Touch (the latter two devices did not have Game Center because they did not get iOS 4). However, Game Center is unofficially available on the iPhone 3G via a hack.[114]
Hardware
The main hardware platform for iOS is the ARM architecture. iOS releases before iOS 7 can only be run on iOS devices with 32-bit ARM processors (ARMv6 and ARMv7-Aarchitectures). In 2013, iOS 7 was released with full 64-bit support (which includes native 64-bit kernel, libraries, drivers as well as all built-in applications),[115] after Apple announced that they were switching to 64-bit ARMv8-A processors with the introduction of the Apple A7 chip.[116] 64-bit
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) support was also enforced for all apps in the App Store; All new apps submitted to the App Store with a deadline of February 2015, and all app updates submitted to the App Store with a deadline of June 1, 2015.[117] iOS 11 drops support for all iOS devices with 32-bit ARM processors as well as 32-bit applications,[118][119] making iOS 64-bit only.[120]
Development
The iOS SDK (Software Development Kit) allows for the development of mobile apps on iOS.
While originally developing iPhone prior to its unveiling in 2007, Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs did not intend to let third-party developers build native apps for iOS, instead directing them to make web applications for the Safari web browser.[121] However, backlash from developers prompted the company to reconsider,[121] with Jobs announcing in October 2007 that Apple would have a software development kit available for developers by February 2008.[122][123] The SDK was released on March 6, 2008.[124][125]
The SDK is a free download for users of Mac personal computers.[126] It is not available for Microsoft Windows PCs.[126] The SDK contains sets giving developers access to various functions and services of iOS devices, such as hardware and software attributes.[127] It also contains an iPhone simulator to mimic the look and feel of the device on the computer while developing.[127] New versions of the SDK accompany new versions of iOS.[128][129] In order to test applications, get technical support, and distribute apps through App Store, developers are required to subscribe to the Apple Developer Program.[126]
Combined with Xcode, the iOS SDK helps developers write iOS apps using officially supported programming languages, including Swift and Objective-C.[130] Other companies have also created tools that allow for the development of native iOS apps using their respective programming languages.[131][132]
Market share iOS is the second most popular mobile operating system in the world, after Android. Sales of iPads in recent years are also behind Android, while, by web use (a proxy for all use), iPads (using iOS) are still most popular.[133]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) By the middle of 2012, there were 410 million devices activated.[134] At WWDC 2014, Tim Cook said 800 million devices had been sold by June 2014.[135]
During Apple's quarterly earnings call in January 2015, the company announced that they had sold over one billion iOS devices since 2007.[136][137]
By late 2011, iOS accounted for 60% of the market share for smartphones and tablets.[138] By the end of 2014, iOS accounted for 14.8% of the smartphone market[139] and 27.6% of the tablet and two-in-one market.[140] In February 2015, StatCounter reported iOS was used on 23.18% of smartphones and 66.25% of tablets worldwide, measured by internet usage instead of sales.[141]
In the third quarter of 2015, research from Strategy Analytics showed that iOS adoption of the worldwide smartphone market was at a record-low 12.1%, attributed to lackluster performance in China and Africa. Android accounted for 87.5% of the market, with Windows Phone and BlackBerry accounting for the rest.[142][143]
Jailbreaking
Since its initial release, iOS has been subject to a variety of different hacks centered around adding functionality not allowed by Apple.[144] Prior to the 2008 debut of Apple's native iOS App Store, the primary motive for jailbreaking was to bypass Apple's purchase mechanism for installing the App Store's native applications.[145] Apple claimed that it will not release iOS software updates designed specifically to break these tools (other than applications that perform SIM unlocking); however, with each subsequent iOS update, previously un-patched jailbreak exploits are usually patched.[146]
Since the arrival of Apple's native iOS App Store, and—along with it—third-party applications, the general motives for jailbreaking have changed.[147] People jailbreak for many different reasons, including gaining filesystem access, installing custom device themes, and modifying SpringBoard. An additional motivation is that it may enable the installation of pirated apps. On some devices, jailbreaking also makes it possible to install alternative operating systems, such as Android and the Linux kernel. Primarily, users jailbreak their devices because of the limitations of iOS. Depending on the method used, the effects of jailbreaking may be permanent or temporary.[148]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) In 2010, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) successfully convinced the U.S. Copyright Office to allow an exemption to the general prohibition on circumvention of copyright protection systems under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The exemption allows jailbreaking of iPhones for the sole purpose of allowing legally obtained applications to be added to the iPhone.[149] The exemption does not affect the contractual relations between Apple and an iPhone owner, for example, jailbreaking voiding the iPhone warranty; however, it is solely based on Apple's discretion on whether they will fix jailbroken devices in the event that they need to be repaired. At the same time, the Copyright Office exempted unlocking an iPhone from DMCA's anticircumvention prohibitions.[150] Unlocking an iPhone allows the iPhone to be used with any wireless carrier using the same GSM or CDMA technology for which the particular phone model was designed to operate.[151]
Unlocking
Initially most wireless carriers in the US did not allow iPhone owners to unlock it for use with other carriers. However AT&T allowed iPhone owners who have satisfied contract requirements to unlock their iPhone.[152] Instructions to unlock the device are available from Apple,[153] but it is ultimately the sole discretion of the carrier to authorize the device to be unlocked.[154] This allows the use of a carrier-sourced iPhone on other networks. Modern versions of iOS and the iPhone fully support LTE across multiple carriers despite where the phone was originally purchased from.[155] There are programs to remove SIM lock restrictions, but are not supported by Apple and most often not a permanent unlock – a soft-unlock.[156]
Digital rights management
The closed and proprietary nature of iOS has garnered criticism, particularly by digital rights advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, computer engineer and activist Brewster Kahle, Internet-law specialist Jonathan Zittrain, and the Free Software Foundation who protested the iPad's introductory event and have targeted the iPad with their "Defective by Design" campaign.[157][158][159][160] Competitor Microsoft, via a PR spokesman, criticized Apple's control over its platform.[161]
At issue are restrictions imposed by the design of iOS, namely digital rights management (DRM) intended to lock purchased media to Apple's platform, the development model (requiring a
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) yearly subscription to distribute apps developed for the iOS), the centralized approval process for apps, as well as Apple's general control and lockdown of the platform itself. Particularly at issue is the ability for Apple to remotely disable or delete apps at will.
Some in the tech community have expressed concern that the locked-down iOS represents a growing trend in Apple's approach to computing, particularly Apple's shift away from machines that hobbyists can "tinker with" and note the potential for such restrictions to stifle software innovation.[162][163] Former Facebook developer Joe Hewitt protested against Apple's control over its hardware as a "horrible precedent" but praised iOS's sandboxing of apps.[164]
Kernel
The iOS kernel is the XNU kernel of Darwin. The original iPhone OS (1.0) up to iPhone OS 3.1.3 used Darwin 9.0.0d1. iOS 4 was based on Darwin 10. iOS 5 was based on Darwin 11. iOS 6 was based on Darwin 13. iOS 7 and iOS 8 are based on Darwin 14. iOS 9 is based on Darwin 15. iOS 10 is based on Darwin 16. iOS 11 is based on Darwin 17.[165]
Security iOS utilizes many security features in both hardware and software. Below are summaries of the most prominent features.
Secure Boot
Before fully booting into iOS, there is low-level code that runs from the Boot ROM. Its task is to verify that the Low-Level Bootloader is signed by the Apple Root CA public key before running it. This process is to ensure that no malicious or otherwise unauthorized software can be run on an iOS device. After the Low-Level Bootloader finishes its tasks, it runs the higher level bootloader, known as iBoot. If all goes well, iBoot will then proceed to load the iOS kernel as well as the rest of the operating system.[166]
Secure Enclave
The Secure Enclave is a coprocessor found in iOS devices that contain Touch ID or Face ID. It has its own secure boot process to ensure that it is completely secure. A hardware random number generator is also included as a part of this coprocessor. Each device's Secure Enclave has a unique ID that is given to it when it is made and cannot be changed. This identifier is used to
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) create a temporary key that encrypts the memory in this portion of the system. The Secure Enclave also contains an anti-replay counter to prevent brute force attacks.[166]
Passcode iOS devices can have a passcode that is used to unlock the device, make changes to system settings, and encrypt the device's contents. Until recently, these were typically four numerical digits long. However, since unlocking the devices with a fingerprint by using Touch ID has become more widespread, six-digit passcodes are now the default on iOS with the option to switch back to four or use an alphanumeric passcode.[166]
Touch ID
Touch ID is a fingerprint scanner that is embedded in the home button and can be used to unlock the device, make purchases, and log into applications among other functions. When used, Touch ID only temporarily stores the fingerprint data in encrypted memory in the Secure Enclave, as described above. There is no way for the device's main processor or any other part of the system to access the raw fingerprint data that is obtained from the Touch ID sensor.[166]
Address Space Layout Randomization
Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) is a low-level technique of preventing memory corruption attacks such as buffer overflows. It involves placing data in randomly selected locations in memory in order to make it harder to predict ways to corrupt the system and create exploits. ASLR makes app bugs more likely to crash the app than to silently overwrite memory, regardless of whether the behavior is accidental or malicious.[167]
Non-Executable Memory iOS utilizes the ARM architecture's Execute Never (XN) feature. This allows some portions of the memory to be marked as non-executable, working alongside ASLR to prevent buffer overflow attacks including return-to-libc attacks.[166]
Encryption
As mentioned above, one use of encryption in iOS is in the memory of the Secure Enclave. When a passcode is utilized on an iOS device, the contents of the device are encrypted. This is
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) done by using a hardware AES 256 implementation that is very efficient because it is placed directly between the flash storage and RAM.[166]
Keychain
The iOS keychain is a database of login information that can be shared across apps written by the same person or organization.[166] This service is often used for storing passwords for web applications.[168]
App Security
Third-party applications such as those distributed through the App Store must be code signed with an Apple-issued certificate. This continues the chain of trust all the way from the Secure Boot process as mentioned above to the actions of the applications installed on the device by users. Applications are also sandboxed, meaning that they can only modify the data within their individual home directory unless explicitly given permission to do otherwise. For example, they cannot access data that is owned by other user-installed applications on the device. There is a very extensive set of privacy controls contained within iOS with options to control apps' ability to access a wide variety of permissions such as the camera, contacts, background app refresh, cellular data, and access to other data and services. Most of the code in iOS, including third-party applications, run as the "mobile" user which does not have root privileges. This ensures that system files and other iOS system resources remain hidden and inaccessible to user-installed applications.[166]
Network Security iOS supports TLS with both low- and high-level APIs for developers. By default, the App Transport Security framework requires that servers use at least TLS 1.2. However, developers are free to override this framework and utilize their own methods of communicating over networks. When Wi-Fi is enabled, iOS uses a randomized MAC address so that devices cannot be tracked by anyone sniffing wireless traffic.[166]
Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is an option in iOS to ensure that even if an unauthorized person knows an Apple ID and password combination, they cannot gain access to the account. It works by requiring not only the Apple ID and password, but also a verification code that is sent to a
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) device that is already known to be trusted.[166] If an unauthorized user attempts to sign in using another user's Apple ID, the owner of the Apple ID receives a notification that allows them to deny access to the unrecognized device.[169]
Android
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. In addition, Google has further developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars, and Wear OS for wrist watches, each with a specialized user interface. Variants of Android are also used on game consoles, digital cameras, PCs and other electronics.
Initially developed by Android Inc., which Google bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007, with the first commercial Android device launched in September 2008. The operating system has since gone through multiple major releases, with the current version being 9.0 "Pie", released in August 2018. The core Android source code is known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), and is primarily licensed under the Apache License.
Android is also associated with a suite of proprietary software developed by Google, including core apps for services such as Gmail and Google Search, as well as the application store and digital distribution platform Google Play, and associated development platform. These apps are licensed by manufacturers of Android devices certified under standards imposed by Google, but AOSP has been used as the basis of competing Android ecosystems, such as Amazon.com's Fire OS, which use their own equivalents to the Google Mobile Services.
Android has been the best-selling OS worldwide on smartphones since 2011 and on tablets since 2013. As of May 2017, it has over two billion monthly active users, the largest installed base of any operating system, and as of June 2018, the Google Play store features over 3.3 million apps.
Features
Interface
Android's default user interface is mainly based on direct manipulation, using touch inputs that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) manipulate on-screen objects, along with a virtual keyboard.[66] Game controllers and full-size physical keyboards are supported via Bluetooth or USB.[67][68] The response to user input is designed to be immediate and provides a fluid touch interface, often using the vibration capabilities of the device to provide haptic feedback to the user. Internal hardware, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and proximity sensors are used by some applications to respond to additional user actions, for example adjusting the screen from portrait to landscape depending on how the device is oriented,[69] or allowing the user to steer a vehicle in a racing game by rotating the device, simulating control of a steering wheel.[70]
Android devices boot to the homescreen, the primary navigation and information "hub" on Android devices, analogous to the desktop found on personal computers. Android homescreens are typically made up of app icons and widgets; app icons launch the associated app, whereas widgets display live, auto-updating content, such as a weather forecast, the user's email inbox, or a news ticker directly on the homescreen.[71] A homescreen may be made up of several pages, between which the user can swipe back and forth.[72] Third-party apps available on Google Play and other app stores can extensively re-theme the homescreen,[73] and even mimic the look of other operating systems, such as Windows Phone.[74] Most manufacturers customize the look and features of their Android devices to differentiate themselves from their competitors.[75]
Along the top of the screen is a status bar, showing information about the device and its connectivity. This status bar can be "pulled" down to reveal a notification screen where apps display important information or updates.[72] Notifications are "short, timely, and relevant information about your app when it‘s not in use", and when tapped, users are directed to a screen inside the app relating to the notification.[76] Beginning with Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean", "expandable notifications" allow the user to tap an icon on the notification in order for it to expand and display more information and possible app actions right from the notification.[77]
An All Apps screen lists all installed applications, with the ability for users to drag an app from the list onto the home screen. A Recents screen lets users switch between recently used apps.[72]
Applications
Applications ("apps"), which extend the functionality of devices, are written using the Android software development kit (SDK)[78] and, often, the Java programming language.[79] Java may be
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) combined with C/C++,[80] together with a choice of non-default runtimes that allow better C++ support.[81] The Go programming language is also supported, although with a limited set of application programming interfaces (API).[82] In May 2017, Google announced support for Android app development in the Kotlin programming language.[83][84]
The SDK includes a comprehensive set of development tools,[85] including a debugger, software libraries, a handset emulator based on QEMU, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Initially, Google's supported integrated development environment (IDE) was Eclipse using the Android Development Tools (ADT) plugin; in December 2014, Google released Android Studio, based on IntelliJ IDEA, as its primary IDE for Android application development. Other development tools are available, including a native development kit (NDK) for applications or extensions in C or C++, Google App Inventor, a visual environment for novice programmers, and various cross platform mobile web applications frameworks. In January 2014, Google unveiled an framework based on Apache Cordova for porting Chrome HTML 5 web applications to Android, wrapped in a native application shell.[86]
Android has a growing selection of third-party applications, which can be acquired by users by downloading and installing the application's APK (Android application package) file, or by downloading them using an application store program that allows users to install, update, and remove applications from their devices. Google Play Store is the primary application store installed on Android devices that comply with Google's compatibility requirements and license the Google Mobile Services software.[87][88] Google Play Store allows users to browse, download and update applications published by Google and third-party developers; as of July 2013, there are more than one million applications available for Android in Play Store.[89] As of July 2013, 50 billion applications have been installed.[90][91] Some carriers offer direct carrier billing for Google Play application purchases, where the cost of the application is added to the user's monthly bill.[92] As of May 2017, there are over one billion active users a month for Gmail, Android, Chrome, Google Play and Maps.
Due to the open nature of Android, a number of third-party application marketplaces also exist for Android, either to provide a substitute for devices that are not allowed to ship with Google Play Store, provide applications that cannot be offered on Google Play Store due to policy violations, or for other reasons. Examples of these third-party stores have included the Amazon
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Appstore, GetJar, and SlideMe. F-Droid, another alternative marketplace, seeks to only provide applications that are distributed under free and open sourcelicenses.[87][93][94][95]
Memory management
Since Android devices are usually battery-powered, Android is designed to manage processes to keep power consumption at a minimum. When an application is not in use the system suspends its operation so that, while available for immediate use rather than closed, it does not use battery power or CPU resources.[96][97] Android manages the applications stored in memory automatically: when memory is low, the system will begin invisibly and automatically closing inactive processes, starting with those that have been inactive for the longest amount of time.[98][99] Lifehacker reported in 2011 that third-party task killer applications were doing more harm than good.[100]
Hardware
The main hardware platform for Android is ARM (the ARMv7 and ARMv8-A architectures), with x86 and x86-64 architectures also officially supported in later versions of Android.[101][102][103][104] The unofficial Android-x86 project provided support for x86 architectures ahead of the official support.[105][106] The ARMv5TE and MIPS32/64 architectures were also historically supported but removed in later Android releases.[107] Since 2012, Android devices with Intel processors began to appear, including phones[108] and tablets. While gaining support for 64-bit platforms, Android was first made to run on 64-bit x86 and then on ARM64. Since Android 5.0 "Lollipop", 64-bit variants of all platforms are supported in addition to the 32- bit variants.[101]
Requirements for the minimum amount of RAM for devices running Android 7.1 range from in practice 2 GB for best hardware, down to 1 GB for the most common screen, to absolute minimum 512 MB for the lowest spec 32-bit smartphone. The recommendation for Android 4.4 is to have at least 512 MB of RAM,[109] while for "low RAM" devices 340 MB is the required minimum amount that does not include memory dedicated to various hardware components such as the baseband processor.[110] Android 4.4 requires a 32-bitARMv7, MIPS or x86 architecture processor (latter two through unofficial ports),[105][111] together with an OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics processing unit (GPU).[112] Android supports OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) and as of latest major version, 3.2 and since Android 7.0 Vulkan (and version 1.1 available for some devices[113]). Some applications may explicitly require a certain version of the OpenGL ES, and suitable GPU hardware is required to run such applications.[112]
Android devices incorporate many optional hardware components, including still or video cameras, GPS, orientation sensors, dedicated gaming controls, accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, magnetometers, proximity sensors, pressure sensors, thermometers, and touchscreens. Some hardware components are not required, but became standard in certain classes of devices, such as smartphones, and additional requirements apply if they are present. Some other hardware was initially required, but those requirements have been relaxed or eliminated altogether. For example, as Android was developed initially as a phone OS, hardware such as microphones were required, while over time the phone function became optional.[91] Android used to require an autofocus camera, which was relaxed to a fixed- focus camera[91] if present at all, since the camera was dropped as a requirement entirely when Android started to be used on set-top boxes.
In addition to running on smartphones and tablets, several vendors run Android natively on regular PC hardware with a keyboard and mouse.[114][115][116][117] In addition to their availability on commercially available hardware, similar PC hardware-friendly versions of Android are freely available from the Android-x86 project, including customized Android 4.4.[118] Using the Android emulator that is part of the Android SDK, or third-party emulators, Android can also run non-natively on x86 architectures.[119][120] Chinese companies are building a PC and mobile operating system, based on Android, to "compete directly with Microsoft Windows and Google Android".[121] The Chinese Academy of Engineering noted that "more than a dozen" companies were customising Android following a Chinese ban on the use of Windows 8 on government PCs.[122][123][124]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Development
The stack of Android Open Source Project
Android is developed by Google until the latest changes and updates are ready to be released, at which point the source code is made available to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP),[125] an open source initiative led by Google.[126] The AOSP code can be found without modification on select devices, mainly the Nexus and Pixel series of devices.[127] The source code is, in turn, customized and adapted by original equipment manufacturers(OEMs) to run on their hardware.[128][129] Also, Android's source code does not contain the often proprietary device drivers that are needed for certain hardware components.[130] As a result, most Android devices, including Google's own, ultimately ship with a combination of free and open source and proprietary software, with the software required for accessing Google services falling into the latter category.
Update schedule
Google announces major incremental upgrades to Android on a yearly basis.[131] The updates can be installed on devices over-the-air.[132] The latest major release is 8.0 "Oreo", announced in March 2017,[133] and released the following August.[134][135]
Compared to its primary rival mobile operating system, Apple's iOS, Android updates typically reach various devices with significant delays. Except for devices within the Google Nexus and Pixel brands, updates often arrive months after the release of the new version, or not at all.[136] This was partly due to the extensive variation in hardware in Android devices,[137] to which each upgrade must be specifically tailored, a time- and resource-consuming
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) process.[138] Manufacturers often prioritize their newest devices and leave old ones behind.[139] Additional delays can be introduced by wireless carriers that, after receiving updates from manufacturers, further customize and brand Android to their needs and conduct extensive testing on their networks before sending the upgrade out to users.[139][140] There are also situations in which upgrades are not possible due to one manufacturing partner not providing necessary updates to drivers.
Linux kernel
Android's kernel is based on the Linux kernel's long-term support (LTS) branches. As of 2018, Android targets versions 4.4, 4.9 or 4.14 of the Linux kernel.[154] The actual kernel depends on the individual device.[155]
Android's variant of the Linux kernel has further architectural changes that are implemented by Google outside the typical Linux kernel development cycle, such as the inclusion of components like device trees, ashmem, ION, and different out of memory (OOM) handling.[156][157] Certain features that Google contributed back to the Linux kernel, notably a power management feature called "wakelocks",[158] were initially rejected by mainline kernel developers partly because they felt that Google did not show any intent to maintain its own code.[159][160] Google announced in April 2010 that they would hire two employees to work with the Linux kernel community,[161] but Greg Kroah-Hartman, the current Linux kernel maintainer for the stable branch, said in December 2010 that he was concerned that Google was no longer trying to get their code changes included in mainstream Linux.[160] Google engineer Patrick Brady once stated in the company's developer conference that "Android is not Linux",[162] with Computerworld adding that "Let me make it simple for you, without Linux, there is no Android".[163] Ars Technica wrote that "Although Android is built on top of the Linux kernel, the platform has very little in common with the conventional desktop Linux stack".[162]
In August 2011, Linus Torvalds said that "eventually Android and Linux would come back to a common kernel, but it will probably not be for four to five years".[164] In December 2011, Greg Kroah-Hartman announced the start of Android Mainlining Project, which aims to put some Android drivers, patches and features back into the Linux kernel, starting in Linux 3.3.[165] Linux included the autosleep and wakelocks capabilities in the 3.5 kernel, after many previous attempts at merger. The interfaces are the same but the upstream Linux implementation allows for two
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) different suspend modes: to memory (the traditional suspend that Android uses), and to disk (hibernate, as it is known on the desktop).[166] Google maintains a public code repository that contains their experimental work to re-base Android off the latest stable Linux versions.[167][168]
The flash storage on Android devices is split into several partitions, such as /system for the operating system itself, and /data for user data and application installations.[169] In contrast to desktop Linux distributions, Android device owners are not given root access to the operating system and sensitive partitions such as /system are read-only. However, root access can be obtained by exploiting security flaws in Android, which is used frequently by the open-source community to enhance the capabilities of their devices,[170] but also by malicious parties to install viruses and malware.[171]
Android is a Linux distribution according to the Linux Foundation,[172] Google's open-source chief Chris DiBona,[173] and several journalists.[174][175] Others, such as Google engineer Patrick Brady, say that Android is not Linux in the traditional Unix-like Linux distribution sense; Android does not include the GNU C Library (it uses Bionic as an alternative C library) and some of other components typically found in Linux distributions.[176]
With the release of Android Oreo in 2017, Google began to require that devices shipped with new SoCs had Linux kernel version 4.4 or newer, for security reasons. Existing devices upgraded to Oreo, and new products launched with older SoCs, were exempt from this rule.[177][178]
Open-source community
Android's source code is released by Google under an open source license, and its open nature has encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open-source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which deliver updates to older devices, add new features for advanced users or bring Android to devices originally shipped with other operating systems.[190] These community-developed releases often bring new features and updates to devices faster than through the official manufacturer/carrier channels, with a comparable level of quality;[191] provide continued support for older devices that no longer receive official updates; or bring Android to devices that were officially released running other operating systems, such as the HP TouchPad. Community releases often come pre-rooted and contain modifications not provided by the original vendor, such as the ability to overclock or over/undervolt the device's
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) processor.[192] CyanogenMod was the most widely used community firmware,[193] now discontinued and succeeded by LineageOS.[194]
Historically, device manufacturers and mobile carriers have typically been unsupportive of third- party firmware development. Manufacturers express concern about improper functioning of devices running unofficial software and the support costs resulting from this.[195] Moreover, modified firmware such as CyanogenMod sometimes offer features, such as tethering, for which carriers would otherwise charge a premium. As a result, technical obstacles including locked bootloaders and restricted access to root permissions are common in many devices. However, as community-developed software has grown more popular, and following a statement by the Librarian of Congress in the United States that permits the "jailbreaking" of mobile devices,[196] manufacturers and carriers have softened their position regarding third party development, with some, including HTC,[195] Motorola,[197]Samsung[198][199] and Sony,[200] providing support and encouraging development. As a result of this, over time the need to circumvent hardware restrictions to install unofficial firmware has lessened as an increasing number of devices are shipped with unlocked or unlockable bootloaders, similar to Nexus series of phones, although usually requiring that users waive their devices' warranties to do so.[195] However, despite manufacturer acceptance, some carriers in the US still require that phones are locked down, frustrating developers and customers.[201]
Security and privacy
Technical security features
Android applications run in a sandbox, an isolated area of the system that does not have access to the rest of the system's resources, unless access permissions are explicitly granted by the user when the application is installed, however this may not be possible for pre-installed apps. It is not possible, for example, to turn off the microphone access of the pre-installed camera app without disabling the camera completely. This is valid also in Android versions 7 and 8.[229]
Since February 2012, Google has used its Google Bouncer malware scanner to watch over and scan apps available in the Google Play store.[230][231] A "Verify Apps" feature was introduced to scan all apps, both from Google Play and from third-party sources, for malicious behavior.[232] Originally only doing so during installation, Verify Apps received an update in
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) 2014 to "constantly" scan apps, and in 2017 the feature was made visible to users through a menu in Settings.[233][234]
Before installing an application, the Google Play store displays a list of the requirements an app needs to function. After reviewing these permissions, the user can choose to accept or refuse them, installing the application only if they accept.[235] In Android 6.0 "Marshmallow", the permissions system was changed; apps are no longer automatically granted all of their specified permissions at installation time. An opt-in system is used instead, in which users are prompted to grant or deny individual permissions to an app when they are needed for the first time. Applications remember the grants, which can be revoked by the user at any time. Pre-installed apps, however, are not always part of this approach. In some cases it may not be possible to deny certain permissions to pre-installed apps, nor be possible to disable them. The Google Play Services app cannot be uninstalled, nor disabled. Any force stop attempt, result in the app restarting itself.[236][237] The new permissions model is used only by applications developed for Marshmallow using its software development kit (SDK), and older apps will continue to use the previous all-or-nothing approach. Permissions can still be revoked for those apps, though this might prevent them from working properly, and a warning is displayed to that effect.[238][239]
In September 2014, Jason Nova of Android Authority reported on a study by the German security company Fraunhofer AISEC in antivirus software and malware threats on Android. Nova wrote that "The Android operating system deals with software packages by sandboxing them; this does not allow applications to list the directory contents of other apps to keep the system safe. By not allowing the antivirus to list the directories of other apps after installation, applications that show no inherent suspicious behavior when downloaded are cleared as safe. If then later on parts of the app are activated that turn out to be malicious, the antivirus will have no way to know since it is inside the app and out of the antivirus‘ jurisdiction". The study by Fraunhofer AISEC, examining antivirus software from Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, ESET, F- Secure, Kaspersky, Lookout, McAfee (formerly Intel Security), Norton, Sophos, and Trend Micro, revealed that "the tested antivirus apps do not provide protection against customized malware or targeted attacks", and that "the tested antivirus apps were also not able to detect malware which is completely unknown to date but does not make any efforts to hide its malignity".[240]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) In August 2013, Google announced Android Device Manager (renamed Find My Device in May 2017),[241][242] a service that allows users to remotely track, locate, and wipe their Android device,[243][244] with an Android app for the service released in December.[245][246] In December 2016, Google introduced a Trusted Contacts app, letting users request location-tracking of loved ones during emergencies.[247][248]
Licensing
The source code for Android is open-source: it is developed in private by Google, with the source code released publicly when a new version of Android is released. Google publishes most of the code (including network and telephony stacks) under the non-copyleft Apache License version 2.0. which allows modification and redistribution.[249][250] The license does not grant rights to the "Android" trademark, so device manufacturers and wireless carriers have to license it from Google under individual contracts. Associated Linux kernel changes are released under the copyleft GNU General Public License version 2, developed by the Open Handset Alliance, with the source code publicly available at all times. Typically, Google collaborates with a hardware manufacturer to produce a flagship device (part of the Nexus series) featuring the new version of Android, then makes the source code available after that device has been released.[251] The only Android release which was not immediately made available as source code was the tablet-only 3.0 Honeycombrelease. The reason, according to Andy Rubin in an official Android blog post, was because Honeycomb was rushed for production of the Motorola Xoom,[252] and they did not want third parties creating a "really bad user experience" by attempting to put onto smartphones a version of Android intended for tablets.[253]
Only the base Android operating system (including some applications) is open-source software, whereas most Android devices ship with a substantial amount of proprietary software, such as Google Mobile Services, which includes applications such as Google Play Store, Google Search, and Google Play Services – a software layer that provides APIs for the integration with Google-provided services, among others. These applications must be licensed from Google by device makers, and can only be shipped on devices which meet its compatibility guidelines and other requirements.[88] Custom, certified distributions of Android produced by manufacturers (such as TouchWiz and HTC Sense) may also replace certain stock Android apps with their own proprietary variants and add additional software not included in the stock Android operating
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) system.[87] There may also be "binary blob" drivers required for certain hardware components in the device.[87][130]
Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation have been critical of Android and have recommended the usage of alternatives such as Replicant, because drivers and firmware vital for the proper functioning of Android devices are usually proprietary, and because the Google Play Store application can forcibly install or uninstall applications and, as a result, invite non-free software; although the Free Software Foundation has not found Google to use it for malicious reasons.[254][255]
Leverage over manufacturers
Google licenses their Google Mobile Services software, along with Android trademarks, only to hardware manufacturers for devices that meet Google's compatibility standards specified in the Android Compatibility Program document.[256] Thus, forks of Android that make major changes to the operating system itself do not include any of Google's non-free components, stay incompatible with applications that require them, and must ship with an alternative software marketplace in lieu of Google Play Store.[87] Examples of such Android forks are Amazon's Fire OS (which is used on the Kindle Fire line of tablets, and oriented toward Amazon services), the Nokia X Software Platform (a fork used by the Nokia X family, oriented primarily toward Nokia and Microsoft services), and other forks that exclude Google apps due to the general unavailability of Google services in certain regions (such as China).[257][258] In 2014, Google also began to require that all Android devices which license the Google Mobile Services software display a prominent "Powered by Android" logo on their boot screens.[88] Google has also enforced preferential bundling and placement of Google Mobile Services on devices, including mandated bundling of the entire main suite of Google applications, and that shortcuts to Google Search and the Play Store app must be present on or near the main home screen page in its default configuration.[259]
Some stock applications and components in AOSP code that were formerly used by earlier versions of Android, such as Search, Music, Calendar, and the location API, were abandoned by Google in favor of non-free replacements distributed through Play Store (Google Search, Google Play Music, and Google Calendar) and Google Play Services, which are no longer open-source. Moreover, open-source variants of some applications also exclude functions that are present in
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) their non-free versions, such as Photosphere panoramas in Camera, and a Google Now page on the default home screen (exclusive to the proprietary version "Google Now Launcher", whose code is embedded within that of the main Google application).[87][260][261][262] These measures are likely intended to discourage forks and encourage commercial licensing in line with Google requirements, as the majority of the operating system's core functionality (and in turn, third-party software), are dependent on proprietary components licensed exclusively by Google, and it would take significant development resources to develop an alternative suite of software and APIs to replicate or replace them. Apps that do not use Google components would also be at a functional disadvantage, as they can only use APIs contained within the OS itself.[263]
In March 2018, it was reported that Google had begun to block "uncertified" Android devices from using Google Mobile Services software, and display a warning indicating that "the device manufacturer has preloaded Google apps and services without certification from Google". Users of custom ROMs are able to register their device ID to their Google account to remove this block.[264]
Members of the Open Handset Alliance, which include the majority of Android OEMs, are also contractually forbidden from producing Android devices based on forks of the OS;[87][265] in 2012, Acer Inc. was forced by Google to halt production on a device powered by Alibaba Group's Aliyun OS with threats of removal from the OHA, as Google deemed the platform to be an incompatible version of Android. Alibaba Group defended the allegations, arguing that the OS was a distinct platform from Android (primarily using HTML5apps), but incorporated portions of Android's platform to allow backwards compatibility with third-party Android software. Indeed, the devices did ship with an application store which offered Android apps; however, the majority of them were pirated.[266][267][268]
Reception
Android received a lukewarm reaction when it was unveiled in 2007. Although analysts were impressed with the respected technology companies that had partnered with Google to form the Open Handset Alliance, it was unclear whether mobile phone manufacturers would be willing to replace their existing operating systems with Android.[269] The idea of an open-source, Linux- based development platform sparked interest,[270] but there were additional worries about Android facing strong competition from established players in the smartphone market, such as
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Nokia and Microsoft, and rival Linux mobile operating systems that were in development.[271] These established players were skeptical: Nokia was quoted as saying "we don't see this as a threat," and a member of Microsoft's Windows Mobile team stated "I don't understand the impact that they are going to have."[272]
Since then Android has grown to become the most widely used smartphone operating system[273][274] and "one of the fastest mobile experiences available".[275] Reviewers have highlighted the open-source nature of the operating system as one of its defining strengths, allowing companies such as Nokia (Nokia X family),[276] Amazon (Kindle Fire), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Ouya, Baidu and others to fork the software and release hardware running their own customised version of Android. As a result, it has been described by technology website Ars Technica as "practically the default operating system for launching new hardware" for companies without their own mobile platforms.[273] This openness and flexibility is also present at the level of the end user: Android allows extensive customisation of devices by their owners and apps are freely available from non-Google app stores and third party websites. These have been cited as among the main advantages of Android phones over others.[273][277]
Despite Android's popularity, including an activation rate three times that of iOS, there have been reports that Google has not been able to leverage their other products and web services successfully to turn Android into the money maker that analysts had expected.[278] The Verge suggested that Google is losing control of Android due to the extensive customization and proliferation of non-Google apps and services – Amazon's Kindle Fire line uses Fire OS, a heavily modified fork of Android which does not include or support any of Google's proprietary components, and requires that users obtain software from its competing Amazon Appstore instead of Play Store.[87] In 2014, in an effort to improve prominence of the Android brand, Google began to require that devices featuring its proprietary components display an Android logo on the boot screen.[88]
Android has suffered from "fragmentation",[279] a situation where the variety of Android devices, in terms of both hardware variations and differences in the software running on them, makes the task of developing applications that work consistently across the ecosystem harder than rival platforms such as iOS where hardware and software varies less. For example, according to data from OpenSignal in July 2013, there were 11,868 models of Android device, numerous different
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) screen sizes and eight Android OS versions simultaneously in use, while the large majority of iOS users have upgraded to the latest iteration of that OS.[280] Critics such as Apple Insider have asserted that fragmentation via hardware and software pushed Android's growth through large volumes of low end, budget-priced devices running older versions of Android. They maintain this forces Android developers to write for the "lowest common denominator" to reach as many users as possible, who have too little incentive to make use of the latest hardware or software features only available on a smaller percentage of devices.[281] However, OpenSignal, who develops both Android and iOS apps, concluded that although fragmentation can make development trickier, Android's wider global reach also increases the potential reward.[280]
Market share
Android devices account for more than half of smartphone sales in most markets, including the US, while "only in Japan was Apple on top" (September–November 2013 numbers).[304] At the end of 2013, over 1.5 billion Android smartphones have been sold in the four years since 2010,[305][306] making Android the most sold phone and tablet OS. Three billion Android smartphones are estimated to be sold by the end of 2014 (including previous years). According to Gartner research company, Android-based devices outsold all contenders, every year since 2012.[307] In 2013, it outsold Windows 2.8:1 or by 573 million.[308][309][310] As of 2015, Android has the largest installed base of all operating systems;[20]Since 2013, devices running it also sell more than Windows, iOS and Mac OS X devices combined.[311]
According to StatCounter, which tracks only the use for browsing the web, Android is the most popular mobile operating system since August 2013.[312] Android is the most popular operating system for web browsing in India and several other countries (e.g. virtually all of Asia, with Japan and North Korea exceptions). According to StatCounter, Android is most used on mobile in all African countries, and it stated "mobile usage has already overtaken desktop in several countries including India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia",[313] with virtually all countries in Africa having done so already (except for seven countries, including Egypt), such as Ethiopia and Kenya in which mobile (including tablets) usage is at 90.46% (Android only, accounts for 75.81% of all use there).[314][315]
While Android phones in the Western world commonly include Google's proprietary add-ons (such as Google Play) to the otherwise open-source operating system, this is increasingly not the
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) case in emerging markets; "ABI Research claims that 65 million devices shipped globally with open-source Android in the second quarter of [2014], up from 54 million in the first quarter"; depending on country, percent of phones estimated to be based only on AOSP source code, forgoing the Android trademark: Thailand (44%), Philippines (38%), Indonesia (31%), India (21%), Malaysia (24%), Mexico (18%), Brazil (9%).[316]
Adoption on tablets
The first-generation Nexus 7 tablet, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Despite its success on smartphones, initially Android tablet adoption was slow.[337] One of the main causes was the chicken or the egg situation where consumers were hesitant to buy an Android tablet due to a lack of high quality tablet applications, but developers were hesitant to spend time and resources developing tablet applications until there was a significant market for them.[338][339] The content and app "ecosystem" proved more important than hardware specs as the selling point for tablets. Due to the lack of Android tablet-specific applications in 2011, early Android tablets had to make do with existing smartphone applications that were ill-suited to larger screen sizes, whereas the dominance of Apple's iPad was reinforced by the large number of tablet-specific iOS applications.[339][340]
Despite app support in its infancy, a considerable number of Android tablets, like the Barnes & Noble Nook (alongside those using other operating systems, such as the HP TouchPad and BlackBerry PlayBook) were rushed out to market in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the iPad.[339]InfoWorld has suggested that some Android manufacturers initially treated their first tablets as a "Frankenphone business", a short-term low-investment opportunity
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) by placing a smartphone-optimized Android OS (before Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets was available) on a device while neglecting user interface. This approach, such as with the Dell Streak, failed to gain market traction with consumers as well as damaging the early reputation of Android tablets.[341][342] Furthermore, several Android tablets such as the Motorola Xoom were priced the same or higher than the iPad, which hurt sales. An exception was the Amazon Kindle Fire, which relied upon lower pricing as well as access to Amazon's ecosystem of applications and content.[339][343]
This began to change in 2012, with the release of the affordable Nexus 7 and a push by Google for developers to write better tablet applications.[344]According to International Data Corporation, shipments of Android-powered tablets surpassed iPads in Q3 2012.[345]
Barnes & Noble Nookrunning Android
As of the end of 2013, over 191.6 million Android tablets had sold in three years since 2011.[346][347] This made Android tablets the most-sold type of tablet in 2013, surpassing iPads in the second quarter of 2013.[348]
According to StatCounter's web use statistics, as of August 15, 2017, Android tablets represent the majority of tablet devices used in South America(57.46%)[349] and Africa (69.08%),[350] while being a distant second to iOS in North America (25.29%) and Europe (32.64%), despite having sizeable majorities in many Central American, Caribbean, and Eastern European states.[351]) and representing the majority in Asia (51.25%)[352] notably in India (65.98%)[353] and Indonesia (82.18%).[354] Android is an extremely distant second at 11.93% in Oceania as well, mostly due to Australia (10.71%) and New Zealand (16.9%), while in some countries such as Nauru over 80% of tablets are believed to use Android.[355] As well, Android is
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) more often than not used by the minority of web users in Antarctica, which has no permanent population.[356]
In March 2016, Galen Gruman of InfoWorld stated that Android devices could be a "real part of your business [..] there's no longer a reason to keep Android at arm's length. It can now be as integral to your mobile portfolio as Apple's iOS devices are".[357] A year earlier, Gruman had stated that Microsoft's own mobile Office apps were "better on iOS and Android" than on Microsoft's own Windows 10 devices.
Windows Phone
Windows Phone (WP) is a family of discontinued[6] mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile[7][8] and Zune.[9] Windows Phone features a new user interface derived from Metro design language. Unlike Windows Mobile, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.[10] It was first launched in October 2010 with Windows Phone 7.[11] Windows Phone 8.1 is the latest public release of the operating system, released to manufacturing on April 14, 2014.[12][13]
Windows Phone was replaced by Windows 10 Mobile in 2015; it emphasizes a larger amount of integration and unification with its PC counterpart—including a new, unified application ecosystem, along with an expansion of its scope to include small-screened tablets.[14]
On October 8, 2017, Joe Belfiore announced that work on Windows 10 Mobile was drawing to a close due to lack of market penetration and resultant lack of interest from app developers.
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History
Development
Work on a major Windows Mobile update may have begun as early as 2004 under the codename "Photon", but work moved slowly and the project was ultimately cancelled.[15] In 2008, Microsoft reorganized the Windows Mobile group and started work on a new mobile operating system.[16] The product was to be released in 2009 as Windows Phone, but several delays prompted Microsoft to develop Windows Mobile 6.5 as an interim release.[17]
Windows Phone was developed quickly. One result was that the new OS would not be compatible with Windows Mobile applications. Larry Lieberman, senior product manager for Microsoft's Mobile Developer Experience, told eWeek: "If we'd had more time and resources, we may have been able to do something in terms of backward compatibility."[18]Lieberman said that Microsoft was attempting to look at the mobile phone market in a new way, with the end
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) user in mind as well as the enterprise network.[18] Terry Myerson, corporate VP of Windows Phone engineering, said, "With the move to capacitive touch screens, away from the stylus, and the moves to some of the hardware choices we made for the Windows Phone 7 experience, we had to break application compatibility with Windows Mobile 6.5."[19]
Latest Version of Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8.1 entered End of Support Status on July 11, 2017; Meaning it will not get any system updates, neither features nor security updates, unless user upgrades to Windows 10 Mobile, which -the upgrade- was entitled to selected models of devices running Windows Phone. Windows 10 Mobile was announced, [20] on October 8 2017, that it no longer receive system features updates, but it would continue to receive security updates.
Partnership with Nokia
On February 11, 2011, at a press event in London, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced a partnership between their companies in which Windows Phone would become the primary smartphone operating-system for Nokia, replacing Symbian.[21] The event focused largely on setting up "a new global mobile ecosystem", suggesting competition with Android and iOS with the words "It is now a three horse race". Elop stated the reason for choosing Windows Phone over Android, saying: "the single most important word is 'differentiation'. Entering the Android environment late, we knew we would have a hard time differentiating."[22] While Nokia would have had more long-term creative control with Android (note that MeeGo as used by Nokia resembles Android more than it does Windows Phone 7 as both Android and MeeGo are based on the Linuxkernel), Elop enjoyed familiarity with his past company where he had been a top executive.[23][24]
The pair announced integration of Microsoft services with Nokia's own services; specifically:[21]
Bing would power search across Nokia devices integration of Nokia Maps with Bing Maps integration of Nokia's Ovi store with the Windows Phone Store
The partnership involves "funds changing hands for royalties, marketing and ad-revenue sharing", which Microsoft later announced as "measured in billions of dollars."[25] Jo Harlow, whom Elop tapped to run Nokia's smartphone business, rearranged her team to match the
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) structure led by Microsoft's VP of Windows Phone, Terry Myerson. Myerson was quoted as saying, "I can trust her with what she tells me. She uses that same direct and genuine communication to motivate her team."[26]
The first Nokia Lumia Windows Phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, were announced in October 2011 at Nokia World 2011.[27][28]
At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2012 Nokia announced the Lumia 900, featuring a 4.3- inch AMOLED ClearBlack display, a 1.4 GHz processor and 16 GB of storage.[29] The Lumia 900 was one of the first Windows Phones to support LTE and was released on AT&T on April 8.[30] An international version launched in Q2 2012, with a UK launch in May 2012.[31] The Lumia 610 was the first Nokia Windows Phone to run the Tango Variant (Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh) and was aimed at emerging markets.
On September 2, 2013, Microsoft announced a deal to acquire Nokia's mobile phone division outright, retaining former CEO Stephen Elop as the head of Microsoft's devices operation.[32][33] Microsoft managers revealed that the acquisition was made because Nokia was driving the development of the Windows Phone platform to better match their products.[34] The merger was completed after regulatory approval in all major markets in April 2014. As a result, Nokia's hardware division became a subsidiary of Microsoft operating under the name Microsoft Mobile.
In February 2014, Nokia released the Nokia X series of smartphones, (later discontinued) using a version of Android forked from the Android Open Source Project. The operating system was modified; Google's software was not included in favour of competing applications and services from Microsoft and Nokia, with a user interface is highly modified to resemble Windows Phone.[35]
Versions
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7.5 logo Main article: Windows Phone 7
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Windows Phone 7 was announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, on February 15, 2010, and released publicly on November 8, 2010 in the United States.
In 2011, Microsoft released Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. The update included a mobile version of Internet Explorer 9 that supports the same web standards and graphical capability as the desktop version, multi-tasking of third-party apps,[36][37] Twitter integration for the People Hub,[38][39][40] and Windows Live SkyDriveaccess.[41] A minor update released in 2012 known as "Tango", along with other bug fixes, lowered the hardware requirements to allow for devices with 800 MHz CPUs and 256 MB of RAM to run Windows Phone.[42]
Since Windows Phone 7 devices could not be upgraded to Windows Phone 8 due to hardware limitations,[43] Windows Phone 7.8 was released as a stopgap update in 2013 to include some of the features from Windows Phone 8. The update included a tweaked start screen, additional color schemes, and more wallpaper options.
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 logo
On October 29, 2012, Microsoft released Windows Phone 8, a new generation of the operating system. Windows Phone 8 replaces its previously Windows CE-based architecture with one based on the Windows NT kernel with many components shared with Windows 8, allowing applications to be ported between the two platforms.
Windows Phone 8.1
Windows Phone 8.1 logo
Windows Phone 8.1 was announced on April 2, 2014, after being released in preview form to developers on April 10, 2014.[44][45][46] New features added include a notification center, Internet Explorer 11 with tab syncing among Windows 8.1 devices and WP devices, separate volume controls, and the option to skin and add a third column of live tiles to the Start Screen. Starting with this release, Microsoft has also dropped the requirement that all Windows Phone OEMs include a camera button and physical buttons for back, Start, and Search.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Windows Phone 8.1 also adds Cortana, a voice assistant similar to Siri and Google Now. Cortana replaces the previous Bing search feature, and was released as a beta in the United States in the first half of 2014, before expanding to other countries in late 2014 and early 2015.[47]
Windows 10 Mobile
Windows 10 logo
Windows 10 Mobile was announced on January 21, 2015, as a mobile operating system for smartphones and tablets running on ARM architecture. Its primary focus is unification with Windows 10, its PC counterpart, in software and services; in accordance with this strategy, the Windows Phone name has been phased out in favor of branding the platform as an edition of Windows 10,[48][49][50][51] although it is still a continuation of Windows Phone, and most Windows Phone 8.1 devices can be upgraded to the platform.[52][53][54]
Windows 10 Mobile emphasizes software using the Universal Windows Platform, which allows apps to be designed for use across multiple Windows 10-based product families with nearly identical code and functionality, and adaptations for available input methods.[55][56][57] When connected to an external display, devices can also render a stripped-down desktop interface similar to Windows on PCs, with support for keyboard and mouse input.[58][59] Windows 10 Mobile also features Skype messaging integration, updated Office Mobile apps, notification syncing with other Windows 10 devices, Microsoft Edge web browser, and other user interface improvements.[49][60][61] Microsoft is also developing middleware known as Windows Bridge to allow iOS Objective-C and Android C++ or Java software to be ported to run on Windows 10 Mobile with limited changes to code.[62][63][64]
Features
User interface
Windows Phone features a user interface based on Microsoft's "Metro" design language,[65] and was inspired by the user interface in the Zune HD.[66] The home screen, called the "Start screen", is made up of "Live Tiles", which have been the inspiration for the Windows 8 live tiles. Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and individual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove tiles.[67] Tiles are dynamic and
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) update in real time – for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages or a tile could display a live update of the weather.[68] Since Windows Phone 8, live tiles can also be resized to either a small, medium, or large appearance.
Several features of Windows Phone are organized into "hubs", which combine local and online content via Windows Phone's integration with popular social networks such as Facebook, Windows Live, and Twitter.[68] For example, the Pictures hub shows photos captured with the device's camera and the user's Facebook photo albums, and the People hub shows contacts aggregated from multiple sources including Windows Live, Facebook, and Gmail. From the hub, users can directly comment and 'like' on social network updates. The other built-in hubs are Xbox Music and Video, Xbox Live Games, Windows Phone Store, and Microsoft Office.[68]
Windows Phone uses multi-touch technology.[68] The default Windows Phone user interface has a dark theme that prolongs battery life on OLED screens as fully black pixels do not emit light. Alternatively, users may choose a light theme in their phone's settings menu.[69] The user may also choose from several accent colors.[70] User interface elements such as links, buttons and tiles are shown in the user's chosen accent color. Third-party applications can be automatically themed with these colors.[71] Windows Phone 8.1 introduces transparent tiles and a customizable background image for the Start screen. The image is visible through the transparent area of the tiles and features a parallax effect when scrolling which gives an illusion of depth. If the user does not pick a background image the tiles render with the accent color of the theme.
Text input
Users input text by using an on-screen virtual keyboard, which has a dedicated key for inserting emoticons,[72] and features spell checking[72] and word prediction.[73] App developers (both inhouse and ISV) may specify different versions of the virtual keyboard in order to limit users to certain character sets, such as numeric characters alone. Users may change a word after it has been typed by tapping the word,[74] which will invoke a list of similar words. Pressing and holding certain keys will reveal similar characters. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced farther apart when in landscape mode. Phones may also be made with a hardware keyboard for text input.[75] Users can also add accents to letters by holding on an individual letter. Windows
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Phone 8.1 introduces a new method of typing by swiping through the keyboard without lifting the finger, in a manner similar to Swype and SwiftKey.
Web browser
Internet Explorer on Windows Phone allows the user to maintain a list of favorite web pages and tiles linking to web pages on the Start screen. The browser supports up to 6 tabs, which can all load in parallel.[76] Other features include multi-touch gestures, smooth zoom in/out animations, the ability to save pictures that are on web pages, share web pages via email, and support for inline search which allows the user to search for a word or phrase in a web page by typing it.[77] Tabs are synced with Windows 8.1 devices using Internet Explorer 11.
Contacts
Contacts are organized via the "People hub", and can be manually entered into contacts or imported from Facebook, Windows Live Contacts, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Outlook. A "What's New" section shows a user's Facebook news feed and a "Pictures" section show pictures from those social networks, while a "Me" section within the "People" hub shows a user's own social network status and wall and allows them to view social network updates. Contacts can also be pinned to the Start Screen. The contact's "Live Tile" displays their social network status and profile picture on the homescreen. Clicking on a contact's tile or accessing their card within the "People" hub will reveal their recent social network activity as well as the rest of their contact information.
If a contact has information stored on multiple networks, users can link the two separate contact accounts, allowing the information to be viewed and accessed from a single card.[78]As of Windows Phone 7.5, contacts can also be sorted into "Groups". Here, information from each of the contacts is combined into a single page which can be accessed directly from the Hub or pinned to the Start screen.
Windows Phone supports Outlook.com, Exchange, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail natively and supports many other services via the POP and IMAP protocols. Updates added support for more services such as iCloud and IBM Notes Traveler. Contacts and calendars may be synced from these services as well. Users can also search through their email by searching in the subject,
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) body, senders, and receivers. Emails are shown with threads, and multiple email inboxes can be combined into a single view (a feature commonly referred to as "combined inbox") or can viewed separately.
Multimedia
The Music + Video Hub on Windows Phone.
Xbox Music and Xbox Video are built-in multimedia hubs providing entertainment and synchronization capabilities between PC, Windows Phone, and other Microsoft products.[79] The two hubs were previously combined until standalone apps were released in late 2013, shortly before Windows Phone 8.1 debuted.[80] The hubs allow users to access music, videos, and podcasts stored on the device, and links directly to the "Xbox Music Store" to buy or rent music and the "Xbox Video Store" to purchase movies and TV episodes. Xbox Music also allows the user to stream music with an Xbox Music Pass. When browsing the music by a particular artist, users are able to view artist biographies and photos.[72] The Xbox Music hub also integrates with many other apps that provide video and music services, including, but not limited to, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Vevo. This hub also includes Smart DJ which compiles a playlist of songs stored on the phone similar to the song or artist selected.
The Pictures hub displays the user's Facebook and OneDrive photo albums, as well as photos taken with the phone's built-in camera. Users can also upload photos to social networks, comment on photos uploaded by other people, and tag photos posted to social networks.[72] Multi-touch gestures permit zooming in and out of photos.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) An official file manager app called Files, which is available for download from the Windows Phone Store, enables users to move and rearrange documents, videos, music and other files within their device's hard drive or to an external SD card.[81]
Media suppor
Windows Phone supports WAV, MP3, WMA, AMR, AAC/MP4/M4A/M4B and 3GP/3G2 standards. The video file formats supported on WP include WMV, AVI, MP4/M4V, 3GP/3G2 and MOV (QuickTime) standards.[82] These supported audio and video formats would be dependent on the codecs contained inside them. It has also been previously reported that the DivX and Xvid codecs within the AVI file format are also playable on WP devices.[83][84]
Note that Windows Phone does not support DRM protected media files that are obtained from services other than Xbox Music Pass.[85]
The image file formats that are supported include JPG/JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIF and Bitmap (BMP).[86][87]
Users can also add custom ringtones which are less than 1MB in size and less than 40 seconds long. DLNA streaming and steroscopic 3D are also supported.[80]
Games
The "Games hub" provides access to games on a phone along with Xbox Live functionality, including the ability for a user to interact with their avatar, view and edit their profile, see their achievements and view leaderboards, and send messages to friends on Xbox Live. The hub also features an area for managing invitations and turn notifications in turn-based multiplayer games.[88] Games are downloaded from Windows Phone Store.
Search
Bing is the default search engine on Windows Phone handsets because its functions are deeply integrated in the OS (which also include the utilization of its map service for location-based searches and queries) However, Microsoft has stated that other search engine applications can be used.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) In the area of location-based searches, Bing Maps (which is powered by Nokia's location services) provides turn-by-turn navigation service to Windows Phone users, and Local Scout shows interest points such as attractions and restaurants in the nearby area. On Nokia devices, Nokia's Here Maps is preinstalled in place of Bing Maps.
Furthermore, Bing Audio allows the user to match a song with its name, and Bing Vision allows the user to scan barcodes, QR codes, and other types of tags.
Cortana
Every Windows Phone has either a dedicated physical Search button or an on-screen Search button, which was previously reserved for a Bing Search app, but has been replaced on Windows Phone 8.1 devices in the United Kingdom and United States by Cortana, a digital personal assistant which can also double as an app for basic searches.
Cortana allows users to do tasks such as set calendar reminders and alarms, and recognizes a user's natural voice, and can be used to answer questions (like current weather conditions, sports scores, and biographies). The app also keeps a "Notebook" to learn a user's behavior over time and tailor reminders for them. Users can edit the "Notebook" to keep information from Cortana or reveal more about themselves.
Office suite
Microsoft Office Mobile on Windows Phone 8
All Windows Phones come preinstalled with Microsoft Office Mobile, which provides interoperability between Windows Phone and the desktop version of Microsoft Office. Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and SharePoint Workspace Mobile apps are accessible through a single "Office Hub," and allow most Microsoft Office file formats to be
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) viewed and edited directly on a Windows Phone device. The "Office Hub" can access files from OneDrive and Office 365, as well as files which are stored locally on the device's hard drive. Although they are not preinstalled in Windows Phone's "Office Hub," OneNote Mobile, Lync Mobile, and OneDrive for Business can be downloaded separately as standalone applications from the Windows Phone Store.
Multitasking
Multitasking in Windows Phone is invoked through long pressing the "back" arrow, which is present on all Windows Phones. Windows Phone 7 uses a card-based task switcher, whereas later versions of Windows Phone utilize true background multitasking.
Sync
Windows Phone 7
Zune Software manages the contents on Windows Phone 7 devices and Windows Phone can wirelessly sync with Zune Software.
Later versions
Syncing content between Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 and Windows PCs or Macs is provided through the Windows Phone App, which is available for both Windows and Mac OS X. It is the official successor to Zune software only for Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1, and allows users to transfer content such as music, videos, and documents.
Users also have the ability to use a "Tap and Send" feature that allows for file transfer between Windows phones, and NFC-compatible devices through NFC.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Updates
A test notification of an "update available" pop-up in the Windows Phone emulator.
Software updates are delivered to Windows Phone users via Microsoft Update, as is the case with other Windows operating systems.[91] Microsoft initially had the intention to directly update any phone running Windows Phone instead of relying on OEMs or wireless carriers,[92] but on January 6, 2012, Microsoft changed their policy to let carriers decide if an update will be delivered.
While Windows Phone 7 users were required to attach their phones to a PC to install updates,[94] starting with Windows Phone 8, all updates are done via over-the-air downloads.[95] Since Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has also begun releasing minor updates that add features to a current OS release throughout the year.[96] These updates were first labeled "General Distribution releases" (or GDRs), but were later rebranded simply as "Updates".
All third-party applications can be updated automatically from the Windows Phone Store.[97]
Advertising platform
Microsoft has also launched an advertising platform for the Windows Phone platform. Microsoft's General Manager for Strategy and Business Development, Kostas Mallios, said that Windows Phone will be an "ad-serving machine", pushing advertising and brand-related content to the user. The platform will feature advertising tiles near applications and toast notifications, which will bring updating advertising notifications. Mallios said that Windows Phone will be
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) able to "preserve the brand experience by going directly from the web site right to the application", and that Windows Phone "enables advertisers to connect with consumers over time".[98] Mallios continued: "you're now able to push information as an advertiser, and stay in touch with your customer. It's a dynamic relationship that is created and provides for an ongoing dialog with the consumer
Bluetooth
Windows Phone supports the following Bluetooth profiles:[100]
1. Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP 1.2) 2. Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP 1.3) 3. Hands Free Profile (HFP 1.5) 4. Headset Profile (HSP 1.1) 5. Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP 1.1) 6. Bluetooth File Transfer (OBEX) (from Windows Phone 7.8)
Windows Phone BTF support is available from Windows Phone 7.8, but is limited to the transferring of pictures, music and videos via a 'Bluetooth Share' app.[101][102]
Feature additions
Microsoft keeps a site where people can submit and vote on features they would like to see added to Windows Phone.[103]
Store
The Windows Phone Store is used to digitally distribute music, video content, podcasts, and third party applications to Windows Phone handsets. The store is accessible using the Zune Software client or the Windows Phone Store hub on devices (though videos are not downloadable through the store hub and must be downloaded and synced through the Zune software).[104] The Store is managed by Microsoft, which includes an approval process. As of March 2012, the Windows Phone Store is available in 54 countries.[105]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Music and videos
Xbox Music offers 50 million (approx) songs up to 320 kbit/s in DRM-free MP3 format from the big four music groups (EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group), as well as smaller music labels. Xbox Video offers HD movies from Paramount, Universal, Warner Brothers, and other studios and also offer television shows from popular television networks.
Microsoft also offers the Xbox Music Pass music subscription service, which allows subscribers to download an unlimited number of songs for as long as their subscription is active and play them in current Microsoft devices.
Applications and games
Development
Third party applications and games for Windows Phone can be based on XNA, a Windows Phone-specific version of Silverlight, the GUI-based Windows Phone App Studio, or the Windows Runtime, which allows developers to develop an app for the both the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store simultaneously.[106][107][108] App developers can develop apps using C# / Visual Basic.NET (.NET), C++ (CX) or HTML5/Javascript.
For Windows Phone apps to be designed and tested within Visual Studio or Visual Studio Express, Microsoft offers Windows Phone Developer Tools, which run only on Windows Vista SP2 and later, as an extension[109] Microsoft also offers Expression Blend for Windows Phone for free. On November 29, 2009, Microsoft announced the Release-to-web (RTW) version of its Visual Basic .NET Developer Tool, to aid development of Windows Phone apps in Visual Basic.
Later versions of Windows Phone support the running of managed code through a Common Language Runtime similar to that of the Windows operating system itself, as opposed to the .NET Compact Framework. This, along with support for native C and C++ libraries, allows some traditional Windows desktop programs to be easily ported to Windows Phone.[110]
Submission
Registered Windows Phone and Xbox Live developers can submit and manage their third party applications for the platforms through the App Hub web applications. The App Hub provides
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) development tools and support for third-party application developers. The submitted applications undergo an approval process for verifications and validations to check if they qualify the applications standardization criteria set by Microsoft.[111] The cost of the applications that are approved is up to the developer, but Microsoft will take 20% of the revenue (the other 80% goes to the developer).[112] Microsoft will only pay developers once they reach a set sales figure, and will withhold 30% tax from non-US developers, unless they first register with the United States Government's Internal Revenue Service. Microsoft only pays developers from a list of thirty countries.[113] A yearly fee is also payable for developers wishing to submit apps.[114]
In order to get an application to appear in the Windows Phone Store, the application must be submitted to Microsoft for approval.[113] Microsoft has outlined the content that it will not allow in the applications, which includes content that, among other things, advocates discrimination or hate, promotes usage of drugs, alcohol or tobacco, or includes sexually suggestive material.[115]
Hardware
Windows Phone 7 devices were first produced by HTC, LG and Samsung. These hardware partners were later joined by Acer, Alcatel, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Nokia, and Chinese OEM ZTE.
Windows Phone 8 devices were being produced by HTC, Huawei, Nokia, and Samsung.
At the 2014 Mobile World Congress, Microsoft announced that upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 devices will be manufactured by Celkon, Gionee, HTC, Huawei, JSR, Karbonn, LG, Lenovo, Longcheer, Micromax, Microsoft Mobile, Samsung, Xolo, and ZTE among others.[116] Sony (under the Xperia or Vaio brand) has also stated its intention to produce Windows Phone devices in the near future.[117] Yezz announced two smartphones in May, and at Computex 2014 BYD, Compal, Pegatron, Quanta and Wistron were also named as new Windows Phone OEMs.[118]
In August 2014, Huawei said it was dropping support for Windows Phone due to low sales.[119]>
Reception
User interface
The reception to the Metro UI and overall interface of the OS has also been highly praised for its style, with ZDNet noting its originality and fresh clean look.[120]Engadget and ZDNet applauded
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) the integration of Facebook into the People Hub as well as other built-in capabilities, such as Windows Live, etc. However, in version 8.1 the once tight Facebook and Twitter integration has been removed so that updates from those social media sites must be accessed via their respective apps.
Market share
Windows Phone 7 (2010–2012)
According to Gartner, there were 1.6 million devices running Microsoft OS sold to customers in Q1 2011 worldwide.[122] 1.7 million smartphones using a Microsoft mobile OS were sold in Q2 2011, for a 1.6% market share.[123] In Q3 2011, Microsoft's worldwide market share dropped slightly to 1.5%.[124] In Q4 2011 market share increased to 1.9%,[125] and it stayed at 1.9% for Q1 2012.[126]However it should be noted that such reports for Q2, Q3 and Q4 of year 2011 include both Windows Phone and small part of Windows Mobile marketshare under the same "Microsoft mobile OS" banner, and do not make the distinction of separating the marketshare values of the two. According to Nielsen, Windows Phone had a 1.7% market share in Q1 2012,[127] and then dropped back to 1.3% in Q2 2012.[128]
Windows Phone 8 (2012–2015)
After the release of Windows Phone 8, Gartner reported that Windows Phone's marketshare jumped to 3% in Q4 2012, a 124% increase over the same time period in 2011.[129]
In mid-2012, IDC had suggested that Windows Phone might surpass the faltering BlackBerry platform and potentially even Apple iOS, because of Nokia dominance in emerging markets like Asia, Latin America, and Africa, as the iPhone was considered too expensive for most of these regions and BlackBerry OS possibly going to feature a similar fate as Symbian.[130][131] IDC's projections were partially correct, as in Q1 2013 Windows Phone
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) shipments surpassed BlackBerry shipment volume for the first time.[132] IDC had to slash the Windows Phone predictions once again, to 7 percent of total market in 2018, because of the slow growth.
As of the third quarter of 2013, Gartner reported that Windows Phone holds a worldwide market share of 3.6%, up 123% from the same period in 2012 and outpacing Android's rate of growth.[134] According to Kantar's October 2013 report, Windows Phone accounted for 10.2% of all smartphone sales in Europe and 4.8% of all sales in the United States.[135]Some analysts have attributed this spike in sales to both Windows Phone 8 and Nokia's successful push to market low and mid-range Windows Phones like the Lumia 520 and Lumia 620 to a younger audience.[136] Gartner reported that Windows Phone market share finished 2013 at 3.2%, which while down from the third quarter of 2013 was still a 46.7% improvement from the same period in 2012.
IDC reported that Windows Phone market share, having peaked in 2013 at 3.4%, had dropped to 2.5% by the second quarter of 2014.
In August 2017, the New York Police Department ordered Apple iPhone products to replace its deployment of 36,000 Lumia 830 and Lumia 640 XL Windows Phone devices, partly citing Microsoft's end of support for Windows Phone 8.1 and its minuscule market share.[139]
Developer interest
Microsoft's developer initiative programs and marketing have gained attention from application developers. As of Q3 2013, an average of 21% of mobile developers use the Windows Phone platform, with another 35% stating they are interested in adopting it.[140] Some reports have indicated that developers may be less interested in developing for Windows Phone because of lower ad revenue when compared to competing platforms.[141] The main criticism of Windows Phone is still the lack of applications when compared to iOS and Android. Developers are backing out of the platform and retiring apps because of the low market share.
BlackBerry
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) History
Development
Work on a major Windows Mobile update may have begun as early as 2004 under the codename "Photon", but work moved slowly and the project was ultimately cancelled.[15] In 2008, Microsoft reorganized the Windows Mobile group and started work on a new mobile operating system.[16] The product was to be released in 2009 as Windows Phone, but several delays prompted Microsoft to develop Windows Mobile 6.5 as an interim release.[17]
Windows Phone was developed quickly. One result was that the new OS would not be compatible with Windows Mobile applications. Larry Lieberman, senior product manager for Microsoft's Mobile Developer Experience, told eWeek: "If we'd had more time and resources, we may have been able to do something in terms of backward compatibility."[18]Lieberman said that Microsoft was attempting to look at the mobile phone market in a new way, with the end user in mind as well as the enterprise network.[18] Terry Myerson, corporate VP of Windows Phone engineering, said, "With the move to capacitive touch screens, away from the stylus, and the moves to some of the hardware choices we made for the Windows Phone 7 experience, we had to break application compatibility with Windows Mobile 6.5."[19]
Latest Version of Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8.1 entered End of Support Status on July 11, 2017; Meaning it will not get any system updates, neither features nor security updates, unless user upgrades to Windows 10 Mobile, which -the upgrade- was entitled to selected models of devices running Windows Phone. Windows 10 Mobile was announced, [20] on October 8 2017, that it no longer receive system features updates, but it would continue to receive security updates.
Partnership with Nokia
On February 11, 2011, at a press event in London, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced a partnership between their companies in which Windows Phone would become the primary smartphone operating-system for Nokia, replacing Symbian.[21] The event focused largely on setting up "a new global mobile ecosystem", suggesting competition with Android and iOS with the words "It is now a three horse race". Elop stated the reason for choosing Windows Phone over Android, saying: "the single most important
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) word is 'differentiation'. Entering the Android environment late, we knew we would have a hard time differentiating."[22] While Nokia would have had more long-term creative control with Android (note that MeeGo as used by Nokia resembles Android more than it does Windows Phone 7 as both Android and MeeGo are based on the Linuxkernel), Elop enjoyed familiarity with his past company where he had been a top executive.[23][24]
The pair announced integration of Microsoft services with Nokia's own services; specifically:[21]
Bing would power search across Nokia devices integration of Nokia Maps with Bing Maps integration of Nokia's Ovi store with the Windows Phone Store
The partnership involves "funds changing hands for royalties, marketing and ad-revenue sharing", which Microsoft later announced as "measured in billions of dollars."[25] Jo Harlow, whom Elop tapped to run Nokia's smartphone business, rearranged her team to match the structure led by Microsoft's VP of Windows Phone, Terry Myerson. Myerson was quoted as saying, "I can trust her with what she tells me. She uses that same direct and genuine communication to motivate her team.
The first Nokia Lumia Windows Phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, were announced in October 2011 at Nokia World 2011.[27][28]
At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2012 Nokia announced the Lumia 900, featuring a 4.3- inch AMOLED ClearBlack display, a 1.4 GHz processor and 16 GB of storage.[29] The Lumia 900 was one of the first Windows Phones to support LTE and was released on AT&T on April 8.[30] An international version launched in Q2 2012, with a UK launch in May 2012.[31] The Lumia 610 was the first Nokia Windows Phone to run the Tango Variant (Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh) and was aimed at emerging markets.
On September 2, 2013, Microsoft announced a deal to acquire Nokia's mobile phone division outright, retaining former CEO Stephen Elop as the head of Microsoft's devices operation.[32][33] Microsoft managers revealed that the acquisition was made because Nokia was driving the development of the Windows Phone platform to better match their products.[34] The merger was completed after regulatory approval in all major markets in April 2014. As a result,
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Nokia's hardware division became a subsidiary of Microsoft operating under the name Microsoft Mobile.
In February 2014, Nokia released the Nokia X series of smartphones, (later discontinued) using a version of Android forked from the Android Open Source Project. The operating system was modified; Google's software was not included in favour of competing applications and services from Microsoft and Nokia, with a user interface is highly modified to resemble Windows Phone.[35]
Versions
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7.5 logo
Windows Phone 7 was announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, on February 15, 2010, and released publicly on November 8, 2010 in the United States.
In 2011, Microsoft released Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. The update included a mobile version of Internet Explorer 9 that supports the same web standards and graphical capability as the desktop version, multi-tasking of third-party apps,[36][37] Twitter integration for the People Hub,[38][39][40] and Windows Live SkyDriveaccess.[41] A minor update released in 2012 known as "Tango", along with other bug fixes, lowered the hardware requirements to allow for devices with 800 MHz CPUs and 256 MB of RAM to run Windows Phone.[42]
Since Windows Phone 7 devices could not be upgraded to Windows Phone 8 due to hardware limitations,[43] Windows Phone 7.8 was released as a stopgap update in 2013 to include some of the features from Windows Phone 8. The update included a tweaked start screen, additional color schemes, and more wallpaper options.
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 logo
On October 29, 2012, Microsoft released Windows Phone 8, a new generation of the operating system. Windows Phone 8 replaces its previously Windows CE-based architecture with one
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) based on the Windows NT kernel with many components shared with Windows 8, allowing applications to be ported between the two platforms.
Windows Phone 8.1
Windows Phone 8.1 logo
Windows Phone 8.1 was announced on April 2, 2014, after being released in preview form to developers on April 10, 2014.[44][45][46] New features added include a notification center, Internet Explorer 11 with tab syncing among Windows 8.1 devices and WP devices, separate volume controls, and the option to skin and add a third column of live tiles to the Start Screen. Starting with this release, Microsoft has also dropped the requirement that all Windows Phone OEMs include a camera button and physical buttons for back, Start, and Search.
Windows Phone 8.1 also adds Cortana, a voice assistant similar to Siri and Google Now. Cortana replaces the previous Bing search feature, and was released as a beta in the United States in the first half of 2014, before expanding to other countries in late 2014 and early 2015.[47]
Windows 10 Mobile
Windows 10 logo
Windows 10 Mobile was announced on January 21, 2015, as a mobile operating system for smartphones and tablets running on ARM architecture. Its primary focus is unification with Windows 10, its PC counterpart, in software and services; in accordance with this strategy, the Windows Phone name has been phased out in favor of branding the platform as an edition of Windows 10,[48][49][50][51] although it is still a continuation of Windows Phone, and most Windows Phone 8.1 devices can be upgraded to the platform.[52][53][54]
Windows 10 Mobile emphasizes software using the Universal Windows Platform, which allows apps to be designed for use across multiple Windows 10-based product families with nearly identical code and functionality, and adaptations for available input methods.[55][56][57] When connected to an external display, devices can also render a stripped-down desktop interface similar to Windows on PCs, with support for keyboard and mouse input.[58][59] Windows 10
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Mobile also features Skype messaging integration, updated Office Mobile apps, notification syncing with other Windows 10 devices, Microsoft Edge web browser, and other user interface improvements.[49][60][61] Microsoft is also developing middleware known as Windows Bridge to allow iOS Objective-C and Android C++ or Java software to be ported to run on Windows 10 Mobile with limited changes to code.[62][63][64]
Features
User interface
Windows Phone features a user interface based on Microsoft's "Metro" design language,[65] and was inspired by the user interface in the Zune HD.[66] The home screen, called the "Start screen", is made up of "Live Tiles", which have been the inspiration for the Windows 8 live tiles. Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and individual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove tiles.[67] Tiles are dynamic and update in real time – for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages or a tile could display a live update of the weather.[68] Since Windows Phone 8, live tiles can also be resized to either a small, medium, or large appearance.
Several features of Windows Phone are organized into "hubs", which combine local and online content via Windows Phone's integration with popular social networks such as Facebook, Windows Live, and Twitter.[68] For example, the Pictures hub shows photos captured with the device's camera and the user's Facebook photo albums, and the People hub shows contacts aggregated from multiple sources including Windows Live, Facebook, and Gmail. From the hub, users can directly comment and 'like' on social network updates. The other built-in hubs are Xbox Music and Video, Xbox Live Games, Windows Phone Store, and Microsoft Office.[68]
Windows Phone uses multi-touch technology.[68] The default Windows Phone user interface has a dark theme that prolongs battery life on OLED screens as fully black pixels do not emit light. Alternatively, users may choose a light theme in their phone's settings menu.[69] The user may also choose from several accent colors.[70] User interface elements such as links, buttons and tiles are shown in the user's chosen accent color. Third-party applications can be automatically themed with these colors.[71] Windows Phone 8.1 introduces transparent tiles and a customizable background image for the Start screen. The image is visible through the transparent area of the
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) tiles and features a parallax effect when scrolling which gives an illusion of depth. If the user does not pick a background image the tiles render with the accent color of the theme.
Text input
Users input text by using an on-screen virtual keyboard, which has a dedicated key for inserting emoticons,[72] and features spell checking[72] and word prediction.[73] App developers (both inhouse and ISV) may specify different versions of the virtual keyboard in order to limit users to certain character sets, such as numeric characters alone. Users may change a word after it has been typed by tapping the word,[74] which will invoke a list of similar words. Pressing and holding certain keys will reveal similar characters. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced farther apart when in landscape mode. Phones may also be made with a hardware keyboard for text input.[75] Users can also add accents to letters by holding on an individual letter. Windows Phone 8.1 introduces a new method of typing by swiping through the keyboard without lifting the finger, in a manner similar to Swype and SwiftKey.
Web browser
Internet Explorer on Windows Phone allows the user to maintain a list of favorite web pages and tiles linking to web pages on the Start screen. The browser supports up to 6 tabs, which can all load in parallel.[76] Other features include multi-touch gestures, smooth zoom in/out animations, the ability to save pictures that are on web pages, share web pages via email, and support for inline search which allows the user to search for a word or phrase in a web page by typing it.[77] Tabs are synced with Windows 8.1 devices using Internet Explorer 11.
Contacts
Contacts are organized via the "People hub", and can be manually entered into contacts or imported from Facebook, Windows Live Contacts, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Outlook. A "What's New" section shows a user's Facebook news feed and a "Pictures" section show pictures from those social networks, while a "Me" section within the "People" hub shows a user's own social network status and wall and allows them to view social network updates. Contacts can also be pinned to the Start Screen. The contact's "Live Tile" displays their social network status and profile picture on the homescreen. Clicking on a contact's tile or accessing their card within the
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) "People" hub will reveal their recent social network activity as well as the rest of their contact information.
If a contact has information stored on multiple networks, users can link the two separate contact accounts, allowing the information to be viewed and accessed from a single card.[78]As of Windows Phone 7.5, contacts can also be sorted into "Groups". Here, information from each of the contacts is combined into a single page which can be accessed directly from the Hub or pinned to the Start screen.
Windows Phone supports Outlook.com, Exchange, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail natively and supports many other services via the POP and IMAP protocols. Updates added support for more services such as iCloud and IBM Notes Traveler. Contacts and calendars may be synced from these services as well. Users can also search through their email by searching in the subject, body, senders, and receivers. Emails are shown with threads, and multiple email inboxes can be combined into a single view (a feature commonly referred to as "combined inbox") or can viewed separately.
Multimedia
The Music + Video Hub on Windows Phone.
Xbox Music and Xbox Video are built-in multimedia hubs providing entertainment and synchronization capabilities between PC, Windows Phone, and other Microsoft products.[79] The
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) two hubs were previously combined until standalone apps were released in late 2013, shortly before Windows Phone 8.1 debuted.[80] The hubs allow users to access music, videos, and podcasts stored on the device, and links directly to the "Xbox Music Store" to buy or rent music and the "Xbox Video Store" to purchase movies and TV episodes. Xbox Music also allows the user to stream music with an Xbox Music Pass. When browsing the music by a particular artist, users are able to view artist biographies and photos.[72] The Xbox Music hub also integrates with many other apps that provide video and music services, including, but not limited to, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Vevo. This hub also includes Smart DJ which compiles a playlist of songs stored on the phone similar to the song or artist selected.
The Pictures hub displays the user's Facebook and OneDrive photo albums, as well as photos taken with the phone's built-in camera. Users can also upload photos to social networks, comment on photos uploaded by other people, and tag photos posted to social networks.[72] Multi-touch gestures permit zooming in and out of photos.
An official file manager app called Files, which is available for download from the Windows Phone Store, enables users to move and rearrange documents, videos, music and other files within their device's hard drive or to an external SD card.[81]
Media support
Windows Phone supports WAV, MP3, WMA, AMR, AAC/MP4/M4A/M4B and 3GP/3G2 standards. The video file formats supported on WP include WMV, AVI, MP4/M4V, 3GP/3G2 and MOV (QuickTime) standards.[82] These supported audio and video formats would be dependent on the codecs contained inside them. It has also been previously reported that the DivX and Xvid codecs within the AVI file format are also playable on WP devices.[83][84]
Note that Windows Phone does not support DRM protected media files that are obtained from services other than Xbox Music Pass.[85]
The image file formats that are supported include JPG/JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIF and Bitmap (BMP).
Users can also add custom ringtones which are less than 1MB in size and less than 40 seconds long. DLNA streaming and steroscopic 3D are also supported.[80]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Games
The "Games hub" provides access to games on a phone along with Xbox Live functionality, including the ability for a user to interact with their avatar, view and edit their profile, see their achievements and view leaderboards, and send messages to friends on Xbox Live. The hub also features an area for managing invitations and turn notifications in turn-based multiplayer games.[88] Games are downloaded from Windows Phone Store.
Search
Bing is the default search engine on Windows Phone handsets because its functions are deeply integrated in the OS (which also include the utilization of its map service for location-based searches and queries). However, Microsoft has stated that other search engine applications can be used/
In the area of location-based searches, Bing Maps (which is powered by Nokia's location services) provides turn-by-turn navigation service to Windows Phone users, and Local Scout shows interest points such as attractions and restaurants in the nearby area. On Nokia devices, Nokia's Here Maps is preinstalled in place of Bing Maps.
Furthermore, Bing Audio allows the user to match a song with its name, and Bing Vision allows the user to scan barcodes, QR codes, and other types of tags.
Cortana
Every Windows Phone has either a dedicated physical Search button or an on-screen Search button, which was previously reserved for a Bing Search app, but has been replaced on Windows Phone 8.1 devices in the United Kingdom and United States by Cortana, a digital personal assistant which can also double as an app for basic searches.
Cortana allows users to do tasks such as set calendar reminders and alarms, and recognizes a user's natural voice, and can be used to answer questions (like current weather conditions, sports scores, and biographies). The app also keeps a "Notebook" to learn a user's behavior over time and tailor reminders for them. Users can edit the "Notebook" to keep information from Cortana or reveal more about themselves.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Office suite
Microsoft Office Mobile on Windows Phone 8
All Windows Phones come preinstalled with Microsoft Office Mobile, which provides interoperability between Windows Phone and the desktop version of Microsoft Office. Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and SharePoint Workspace Mobile apps are accessible through a single "Office Hub," and allow most Microsoft Office file formats to be viewed and edited directly on a Windows Phone device. The "Office Hub" can access files from OneDrive and Office 365, as well as files which are stored locally on the device's hard drive. Although they are not preinstalled in Windows Phone's "Office Hub," OneNote Mobile, Lync Mobile, and OneDrive for Business can be downloaded separately as standalone applications from the Windows Phone Store.
Multitasking
Multitasking in Windows Phone is invoked through long pressing the "back" arrow, which is present on all Windows Phones. Windows Phone 7 uses a card-based task switcher, whereas later versions of Windows Phone utilize true background multitasking.
Sync
Windows Phone 7
Zune Software manages the contents on Windows Phone 7 devices and Windows Phone can wirelessly sync with Zune Software.
Later versions
Syncing content between Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 and Windows PCs or Macs is provided through the Windows Phone App, which is available for both Windows and Mac OS X. It is the
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) official successor to Zune software only for Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1, and allows users to transfer content such as music, videos, and documents.
Users also have the ability to use a "Tap and Send" feature that allows for file transfer between Windows phones, and NFC-compatible devices through NFC.
Updates
A test notification of an "update available" pop-up in the Windows Phone emulator.
Software updates are delivered to Windows Phone users via Microsoft Update, as is the case with other Windows operating systems.[91] Microsoft initially had the intention to directly update any phone running Windows Phone instead of relying on OEMs or wireless carriers,[92] but on January 6, 2012, Microsoft changed their policy to let carriers decide if an update will be delivered.[93]
While Windows Phone 7 users were required to attach their phones to a PC to install updates,[94] starting with Windows Phone 8, all updates are done via over-the-air downloads.[95] Since Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has also begun releasing minor updates that add features to a current OS release throughout the year.[96] These updates were first labeled "General Distribution releases" (or GDRs), but were later rebranded simply as "Updates".
All third-party applications can be updated automatically from the Windows Phone Store.[97]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Advertising platform
Microsoft has also launched an advertising platform for the Windows Phone platform. Microsoft's General Manager for Strategy and Business Development, Kostas Mallios, said that Windows Phone will be an "ad-serving machine", pushing advertising and brand-related content to the user. The platform will feature advertising tiles near applications and toast notifications, which will bring updating advertising notifications. Mallios said that Windows Phone will be able to "preserve the brand experience by going directly from the web site right to the application", and that Windows Phone "enables advertisers to connect with consumers over time".[98] Mallios continued: "you're now able to push information as an advertiser, and stay in touch with your customer. It's a dynamic relationship that is created and provides for an ongoing dialog with the consumer."[99]
Bluetooth
Windows Phone supports the following Bluetooth profiles:[100]
1. Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP 1.2) 2. Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP 1.3) 3. Hands Free Profile (HFP 1.5) 4. Headset Profile (HSP 1.1) 5. Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP 1.1) 6. Bluetooth File Transfer (OBEX) (from Windows Phone 7.8)
Windows Phone BTF support is available from Windows Phone 7.8, but is limited to the transferring of pictures, music and videos via a 'Bluetooth Share' app.[101][102]
Feature additions
Microsoft keeps a site where people can submit and vote on features they would like to see added to Windows Phone.[103]
Store
The Windows Phone Store is used to digitally distribute music, video content, podcasts, and third party applications to Windows Phone handsets. The store is accessible using the Zune Software client or the Windows Phone Store hub on devices (though videos are not
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) downloadable through the store hub and must be downloaded and synced through the Zune software).[104] The Store is managed by Microsoft, which includes an approval process. As of March 2012, the Windows Phone Store is available in 54 countries.[105]
Music and videos
Xbox Music offers 50 million (approx) songs up to 320 kbit/s in DRM-free MP3 format from the big four music groups (EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group), as well as smaller music labels. Xbox Video offers HD movies from Paramount, Universal, Warner Brothers, and other studios and also offer television shows from popular television networks.
Microsoft also offers the Xbox Music Pass music subscription service, which allows subscribers to download an unlimited number of songs for as long as their subscription is active and play them in current Microsoft devices.
Applications and games
Development
Third party applications and games for Windows Phone can be based on XNA, a Windows Phone-specific version of Silverlight, the GUI-based Windows Phone App Studio, or the Windows Runtime, which allows developers to develop an app for the both the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store simultaneously.[106][107][108] App developers can develop apps using C# / Visual Basic.NET (.NET), C++ (CX) or HTML5/Javascript.
For Windows Phone apps to be designed and tested within Visual Studio or Visual Studio Express, Microsoft offers Windows Phone Developer Tools, which run only on Windows Vista SP2 and later, as an extension[109] Microsoft also offers Expression Blend for Windows Phone for free. On November 29, 2009, Microsoft announced the Release-to-web (RTW) version of its Visual Basic .NET Developer Tool, to aid development of Windows Phone apps in Visual Basic.
Later versions of Windows Phone support the running of managed code through a Common Language Runtime similar to that of the Windows operating system itself, as opposed to the .NET Compact Framework. This, along with support for native C and C++ libraries, allows some traditional Windows desktop programs to be easily ported to Windows Phone.[110]
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Registered Windows Phone and Xbox Live developers can submit and manage their third party applications for the platforms through the App Hub web applications. The App Hub provides development tools and support for third-party application developers. The submitted applications undergo an approval process for verifications and validations to check if they qualify the applications standardization criteria set by Microsoft.[111] The cost of the applications that are approved is up to the developer, but Microsoft will take 20% of the revenue (the other 80% goes to the developer).[112] Microsoft will only pay developers once they reach a set sales figure, and will withhold 30% tax from non-US developers, unless they first register with the United States Government's Internal Revenue Service. Microsoft only pays developers from a list of thirty countries.[113] A yearly fee is also payable for developers wishing to submit apps.[114]
In order to get an application to appear in the Windows Phone Store, the application must be submitted to Microsoft for approval.[113] Microsoft has outlined the content that it will not allow in the applications, which includes content that, among other things, advocates discrimination or hate, promotes usage of drugs, alcohol or tobacco, or includes sexually suggestive material.[115]
Hardware
Windows Phone 7 devices were first produced by HTC, LG and Samsung. These hardware partners were later joined by Acer, Alcatel, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Nokia, and Chinese OEM ZTE.
Windows Phone 8 devices were being produced by HTC, Huawei, Nokia, and Samsung.
At the 2014 Mobile World Congress, Microsoft announced that upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 devices will be manufactured by Celkon, Gionee, HTC, Huawei, JSR, Karbonn, LG, Lenovo, Longcheer, Micromax, Microsoft Mobile, Samsung, Xolo, and ZTE among others.[116] Sony (under the Xperia or Vaio brand) has also stated its intention to produce Windows Phone devices in the near future.[117] Yezz announced two smartphones in May, and at Computex 2014 BYD, Compal, Pegatron, Quanta and Wistron were also named as new Windows Phone OEMs.[118]
In August 2014, Huawei said it was dropping support for Windows Phone due to low sales.[119]>
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Reception
User interface
The reception to the Metro UI and overall interface of the OS has also been highly praised for its style,[citation needed] with ZDNet noting its originality and fresh clean look.[120]Engadget and ZDNet applauded the integration of Facebook into the People Hub as well as other built-in capabilities, such as Windows Live, etc. However, in version 8.1 the once tight Facebook and Twitter integration has been removed so that updates from those social media sites must be accessed via their respective apps.[121]
Market share
Windows Phone 7 (2010–2012)
According to Gartner, there were 1.6 million devices running Microsoft OS sold to customers in Q1 2011 worldwide.[122] 1.7 million smartphones using a Microsoft mobile OS were sold in Q2 2011, for a 1.6% market share.[123] In Q3 2011, Microsoft's worldwide market share dropped slightly to 1.5%.[124] In Q4 2011 market share increased to 1.9%,[125] and it stayed at 1.9% for Q1 2012.[126]However it should be noted that such reports for Q2, Q3 and Q4 of year 2011 include both Windows Phone and small part of Windows Mobile marketshare under the same "Microsoft mobile OS" banner, and do not make the distinction of separating the marketshare values of the two. According to Nielsen, Windows Phone had a 1.7% market share in Q1 2012,[127] and then dropped back to 1.3% in Q2 2012.[128]
Windows Phone 8 (2012–2015)
After the release of Windows Phone 8, Gartner reported that Windows Phone's marketshare jumped to 3% in Q4 2012, a 124% increase over the same time period in 2011.[129]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) In mid-2012, IDC had suggested that Windows Phone might surpass the faltering BlackBerry platform and potentially even Apple iOS, because of Nokia dominance in emerging markets like Asia, Latin America, and Africa, as the iPhone was considered too expensive for most of these regions and BlackBerry OS possibly going to feature a similar fate as Symbian.[130][131] IDC's projections were partially correct, as in Q1 2013 Windows Phone shipments surpassed BlackBerry shipment volume for the first time.[132] IDC had to slash the Windows Phone predictions once again, to 7 percent of total market in 2018, because of the slow growth.
As of the third quarter of 2013, Gartner reported that Windows Phone holds a worldwide market share of 3.6%, up 123% from the same period in 2012 and outpacing Android's rate of growth.[134] According to Kantar's October 2013 report, Windows Phone accounted for 10.2% of all smartphone sales in Europe and 4.8% of all sales in the United States.[135]Some analysts have attributed this spike in sales to both Windows Phone 8 and Nokia's successful push to market low and mid-range Windows Phones like the Lumia 520 and Lumia 620 to a younger audience.[136] Gartner reported that Windows Phone market share finished 2013 at 3.2%, which while down from the third quarter of 2013 was still a 46.7% improvement from the same period in 2012.
IDC reported that Windows Phone market share, having peaked in 2013 at 3.4%, had dropped to 2.5% by the second quarter of 2014.[138]
In August 2017, the New York Police Department ordered Apple iPhone products to replace its deployment of 36,000 Lumia 830 and Lumia 640 XL Windows Phone devices, partly citing Microsoft's end of support for Windows Phone 8.1 and its minuscule market share.[139]
Symbian platforms
Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones.[6] Symbian was originally developed as a closed-source OS for PDAs in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium.[7] Symbian OS was a descendant of Psion's EPOC, and ran exclusively on ARM processors, although an unreleased x86 port existed. Symbian was used by many major mobile phone brands, like Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and above all by Nokia. It was also prevalent in Japan by brands including Fujitsu, Sharp and Mitsubishi. As a
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) pioneer that established the smartphone industry, it was the most popular smartphone OS on a worldwide average until the end of 2010 – at a time when smartphones were in limited use, when it was overtaken by Android, as Google and its partners achieved wide adoption. It was notably not as popular in North America.
The Symbian OS platform is formed of two components: one being the microkernel-based operating system with its associated libraries, and the other being the user interface (as middleware), which provides the graphical shell atop the OS.[8] The most prominent user interface was the S60 (formerly Series 60) platform built by Nokia, first released in 2002 and powering most Nokia Symbian devices. UIQ was a competing user interface mostly used by Motorola and Sony Ericsson that focused on pen-based devices, rather than a traditional keyboard interface from S60. Another interface was the MOAP(S) platform from carrier NTT DoCoMo in the Japanese market.[9][10] Applications of these different interfaces were not compatible with each other, despite each being built atop Symbian OS. Nokia became the largest shareholder of Symbian Ltd. in 2004 and purchased the entire company in 2008.[11] The non- profit Symbian Foundation was then created to make a royalty-free successor to Symbian OS – seeking to unify the platform, S60 became the Foundation's favoured interface and UIQ stopped development. The touchscreen-focused Symbian^1 (or S60 5th Edition) was created as a result in 2009. Symbian^2 (based on MOAP) was used by NTT DoCoMo, one of the members of the Foundation, for the Japanese market. Symbian^3 was released in 2010 as the successor to S60 5th Edition, by which time it became fully open source. Symbian^3 received the Anna and Belle updates in 2011.[12][13]
The Symbian Foundation disintegrated in late 2010 and Nokia took back control of the OS development.[14][15] In February 2011, Nokia, by now the only remaining company still supporting Symbian outside Japan, announced that it would use Microsoft's Windows Phone 7as its primary smartphone platform, while Symbian would be gradually wound down.[16][17] Two months later, Nokia moved the OS to closed licensing, only collaborating with the Japanese OEMs[18] and later outsourced Symbian development to Accenture.[6][19]Although support was promised until 2016, including two major planned updates, by 2012 Nokia had mostly abandoned development and most Symbian developers had already left Accenture,[20] and in January 2014 Nokia stopped accepting new or changed Symbian software from developers.[21] The Nokia 808 PureView in 2012 was officially the last Symbian smartphone
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) from Nokia.[22] NTT DoCoMo continued releasing OPP(S) (Operator Pack Symbian, successor of MOAP) devices in Japan, which still act as middleware on top of Symbian.[23] Phones running this include the F-07F (ja) from Fujitsu and SH-07F (ja) from Sharp in 2014.
History
Logo of Symbian OS until the Symbian Foundation was formed in 2008
Symbian originated from EPOC32, an operating system created by Psion in the 1990s. In June 1998, Psion Software became Symbian Ltd., a major joint venture between Psion and phone manufacturers Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia.
Afterwards, different software platforms were created for Symbian, backed by different groups of mobile phone manufacturers. They include S60 (Nokia, Samsung and LG), UIQ (Sony Ericsson and Motorola) and MOAP(S) (Japanese only such as Fujitsu, Sharp etc.).
With no major competition in the smartphone OS then (Palm OS and Windows Mobile were comparatively small players), Symbian reached as high as 67% of the global smartphone market share in 2006.[26]
Despite its sizable market share then, Symbian was at various stages difficult to develop for: First (at around early-to-mid-2000's) due to the complexity of then the only native programming languages OPL and Symbian C++ and of the OS itself; then the obstinate developer bureaucracy, along with high prices of various IDEs and SDKs, which were prohibitive for independent or very small developers; and then the subsequent fragmentation, which was in part caused by infighting among and within manufacturers, each of which also had their own IDEs and SDKs. All of this discouraged third-party developers, and served to cause the native app ecosystem for Symbian not to evolve to a scale later reached by Apple's App Store or Android's Google Play.
By contrast, iPhone OS (renamed iOS in 2010) and Android had comparatively simpler design, provided easier and much more centralized infrastructure to create and obtain third-party apps, offered certain developer tools and programming languages with a manageable level of
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) complexity, and having capabilities such as multitasking and graphics in order to meet future consumer demands.
Although Symbian was difficult to program for, this issue could be worked around by creating Java Mobile Edition apps, ostensibly under a "write once, run anywhere" slogan.[27] This wasn't always the case because of fragmentation due to different device screen sizes and differences in levels of Java ME support on various devices.
In June 2008, Nokia announced the acquisition of Symbian Ltd., and a new independent non- profit organization called the Symbian Foundation was established. Symbian OS and its associated user interfaces S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) were contributed by their owners Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Sony Ericsson and Symbian Ltd., to the foundation with the objective of creating the Symbian platform as a royalty-free, open source software, under the OSI- and FSF- approved Eclipse Public License (EPL). The platform was designated as the successor to Symbian OS, following the official launch of the Symbian Foundation in April 2009. The Symbian platform was officially made available as open source code in February 2010.[28]
Nokia became the major contributor to Symbian's code, since it then possessed the development resources for both the Symbian OS core and the user interface. Since then Nokia maintained its own code repository for the platform development, regularly releasing its development to the public repository.[29] Symbian was intended to be developed by a community led by the Symbian Foundation, which was first announced in June 2008 and which officially launched in April 2009. Its objective was to publish the source code for the entire Symbian platform under the OSI- and FSF-approved Eclipse Public License (EPL). The code was published under EPL on 4 February 2010; Symbian Foundation reported this event to be the largest codebase moved to Open Source in history.[28][30]
However, some important components within Symbian OS were licensed from third parties, which prevented the foundation from publishing the full source under EPL immediately; instead much of the source was published under a more restrictive Symbian Foundation License (SFL) and access to the full source code was limited to member companies only, although membership was open to any organisation.[31] Also, the open-source Qt framework was introduced to Symbian in 2010, as the primary upgrade path to MeeGo, which was to be the next mobile operating system to replace and supplant Symbian on high-end devices; Qt was by its nature free
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) and very convenient to develop with. Several other frameworks were deployed to the platform, among them Standard C/C++, Python, Ruby, and Flash Lite. IDEs and SDKs were developed and then released for free, and app development for Symbian picked up.
In November 2010, the Symbian Foundation announced that due to changes in global economic and market conditions (and also a lack of support from members such as Samsung[32] and Sony Ericsson), it would transition to a licensing-only organisation;[33] Nokia announced it would take over the stewardship of the Symbian platform. Symbian Foundation would remain the trademark holder and licensing entity and would only have non-executive directors involved.
With market share sliding from 39% in Q32010 to 31% in Q42010,[34] Symbian was losing ground to iOS and Android quickly, eventually falling behind Android in Q42010.[35]Stephen Elop was appointed the CEO of Nokia in September 2010, and on 11 February 2011, he announced a partnership with Microsoft that would see Nokia adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform,[36] and Symbian would be gradually phased out, together with MeeGo.[17] As a consequence, Symbian's market share fell, and application developers for Symbian dropped out rapidly. Research in June 2011 indicated that over 39% of mobile developers using Symbian at the time of publication were planning to abandon the platform.[37]
By 5 April 2011, Nokia ceased to openly source any portion of the Symbian software and reduced its collaboration to a small group of pre-selected partners in Japan.[5] Source code released under the EPL remains available in third party repositories.[38][39]
On 22 June 2011, Nokia made an agreement with Accenture for an outsourcing program. Accenture will provide Symbian-based software development and support services to Nokia through 2016; about 2,800 Nokia employees became Accenture employees as of October 2011.[19] The transfer was completed on 30 September 2011.[6]
Nokia terminated its support of software development and maintenance for Symbian with effect from 1 January 2014, thereafter refusing to publish new or changed Symbian applications or content in the Nokia Store and terminating its 'Symbian Signed' program for software certification.[40]
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User interface
Symbian has had a native graphics toolkit since its inception, known as AVKON (formerly known as Series 60). S60 was designed to be manipulated by a keyboard-like interface metaphor, such as the ~15-key augmented telephone keypad, or the mini-QWERTY keyboards. AVKON- based software is binary-compatible with Symbian versions up to and including Symbian^3.
Symbian^3 includes the Qt framework, which is now the recommended user interface toolkit for new applications. Qt can also be installed on older Symbian devices.
Symbian^4 was planned to introduce a new GUI library framework specifically designed for a touch-based interface, known as "UI Extensions for Mobile" or UIEMO (internal project name "Orbit"), which was built on top of Qt Widget; a preview was released in January 2010, however in October 2010 Nokia announced that Orbit/UIEMO had been cancelled.
Nokia currently recommends that developers use Qt Quick with QML, the new high-level declarative UI and scripting framework for creating visually rich touchscreen interfaces that allows development for both Symbian and MeeGo; it will be delivered to existing Symbian^3 devices as a Qt update. When more applications gradually feature a user interface reworked in Qt, the legacy S60 framework (AVKON) will be deprecated and no longer included with new devices at some point, thus breaking binary compatibility with older S60 applications.[41][42]
Browser
Symbian S60 5th edition on a Samsung Omnia HD
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Symbian^3 and earlier have a built-in WebKit based browser. Symbian was the first mobile platform to make use of WebKit (in June 2005).[43]Some older Symbian models have Opera Mobile as their default browser.
Nokia released a new browser with the release of Symbian Anna with improved speed and an improved user interface.[44]
Multiple language support
Symbian has strong localization support enabling manufacturers and 3rd party application developers to localize their Symbian based products in order to support global distribution. Current Symbian release (Symbian Belle) has support for 48 languages, which Nokia makes available on device in language packs (set of languages which cover the languages commonly spoken in the area where the device variant is intended to be sold). All language packs have in common English (or a locally relevant dialect of it). The supported languages [with dialects] (and scripts) in Symbian Belle are:
Arabic (Arabic), English [US] Italian (Latin), Russian (Cyrillic),
Basque (Latin), (Latin), Japanese Serbian (Latin),
Bulgarian (Cyrillic), Estonian (Latin), (Japanese script)* Slovak (Latin),
Catalan (Latin), Finnish (Latin), Kazakh (Cyrillic), Slovene (Latin),
Chinese [PRC] French (Latin), Latvian (Latin), Spanish (Latin), (Simplified French [Canadian] Lithuanian Spanish [Latin Chinese), (Latin), (Latin), America] (Latin),
Chinese [Hong Galician (Latin), Malay [Bahasa Swedish (Latin),
Kong] (Traditional German (Latin), Malaysia] (Latin), Tagalog [Filipino]
Chinese), Greek (Greek), Marathi (Latin),
Chinese [Taiwan] Hebrew (Hebrew), (Maharashtra), Thai (Thai),
(Traditional Hindi (Indian), Norwegian Tamil (India)
Chinese), Hungarian (Latin), (Latin), Turkish (Latin),
Croatian (Latin), Icelandic (Latin), Persian [Farsi], Ukrainian
Czech (Latin), Indonesian [Bahasa Polish (Latin), (Cyrillic), Danish (Latin), Indonesia] (Latin), Portuguese Urdu (Arabic),
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English [UK] Portuguese (Latin). (Latin), [Brazilian] (Latin),
Romanian [Romania] (Latin),
Symbian Belle marks the introduction of Kazakh, while Korean is no longer supported.
Japanese is only available on Symbian^2 devices as they are made in Japan, and on other Symbian devices Japanese is still supported with limitations.
Application development
Homescreen of Symbian Belle FP2 in landscape mode on a Nokia 808 PureView.
From 2010, Symbian switched to using standard C++ with Qt as the main SDK, which can be used with either Qt Creator or Carbide.c++. Qt supports the older Symbian/S60 3rd (starting with Feature Pack 1, a.k.a. S60 3.1) and Symbian/S60 5th Edition (a.k.a. S60 5.01b) releases, as well as the new Symbian platform. It also supports Maemo and MeeGo, Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.[45][46]
Alternative application development can be done using Python (see Python for S60), Adobe Flash Lite or Java ME.
Symbian OS previously used a Symbian specific C++ version, along with CodeWarrior and later Carbide.c++ integrated development environment (IDE), as the native application development environment.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Web Run time (WRT) is a portable application framework that allows creating widgets on the S60 Platform; it is an extension to the S60 WebKit based browser that allows launching multiple browser instances as separate JavaScript applications.[47][48]
Application development
Qt
As of 2010, the SDK for Symbian is standard C++, using Qt. It can be used with either Qt Creator, or Carbide (the older IDE previously used for Symbian development).[45][49] A phone simulator allows testing of Qt apps. Apps compiled for the simulator are compiled to native code for the development platform, rather than having to be emulated.[50]Application development can either use C++ or QML.
Symbian C++
As Symbian OS is written in C++ using Symbian Software's coding standards, it is possible to develop using Symbian C++, although it is not a standard implementation. Before the release of the Qt SDK, this was the standard development environment. There were multiple platforms based on Symbian OS that provided software development kits (SDKs) for application developers wishing to target Symbian OS devices, the main ones being UIQ and S60. Individual phone products, or families, often had SDKs or SDK extensions downloadable from the maker's website too.
The SDKs contain documentation, the header files and library files needed to build Symbian OS software, and a Windows-based emulator ("WINS"). Up until Symbian OS version 8, the SDKs also included a version of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) compiler (a cross-compiler) needed to build software to work on the device.
Symbian OS 9 and the Symbian platform use a new application binary interface (ABI) and needed a different compiler. A choice of compilers is available including a newer version of GCC (see external links below).
Unfortunately, Symbian C++ programming has a steep learning curve, as Symbian C++ requires the use of special techniques such as descriptors, active objects and the cleanup stack. This can make even relatively simple programs initially harder to implement than in other environments. It is possible that the techniques, developed for the much more restricted mobile hardware and
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) compilers of the 1990s, caused extra complexity in source code because programmers are required to concentrate on low-level details instead of more application-specific features. As of 2010, these issues are no longer the case when using standard C++, with the Qt SDK.
Symbian C++ programming is commonly done with an integrated development environment (IDE). For earlier versions of Symbian OS, the commercial IDE CodeWarrior for Symbian OS was favoured. The CodeWarrior tools were replaced during 2006 by Carbide.c++, an Eclipse-based IDE developed by Nokia. Carbide.c++ is offered in four different versions: Express, Developer, Professional, and OEM, with increasing levels of capability. Fully featured software can be created and released with the Express edition, which is free. Features such as UI design, crash debugging etc. are available in the other, charged-for, editions. Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 are also supported via the Carbide.vs plugin.
Other languages
Symbian v9.1 with a S60v3 interface, on a Nokia E61
Symbian devices can also be programmed using Python, Java ME, Flash Lite, Ruby, .NET, Web Runtime (WRT) Widgets and Standard C/C++.[51]
Visual Basic programmers can use NS Basic to develop apps for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 devices.
In the past, Visual Basic, Visual Basic .NET, and C# development for Symbian were possible through AppForge Crossfire, a plugin for Microsoft Visual Studio. On 13 March 2007 AppForge ceased operations; Oracle purchased the intellectual property, but announced that they did not
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) plan to sell or provide support for former AppForge products. Net60, a .NET compact framework for Symbian, which is developed by redFIVElabs, is sold as a commercial product. With Net60, VB.NET and C# (and other) source code is compiled into an intermediate language (IL) which is executed within the Symbian OS using a just-in-time compiler. (As of Jan 18th, 2010, RedFiveLabs has ceased development of Net60 with this announcement on their landing page: "At this stage we are pursuing some options to sell the IP so that Net60 may continue to have a future".)
There is also a version of a Borland IDE for Symbian OS. Symbian OS development is also possible on Linux and Mac OS X using tools and methods developed by the community, partly enabled by Symbian releasing the source code for key tools. A plugin that allows development of Symbian OS applications in Apple's Xcode IDE for Mac OS X was available.[52]
Java ME applications for Symbian OS are developed using standard techniques and tools such as the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit (formerly the J2ME Wireless Toolkit). They are packaged as JAR (and possibly JAD) files. Both CLDC and CDC applications can be created with NetBeans. Other tools include SuperWaba, which can be used to build Symbian 7.0 and 7.0s programs using Java.
Nokia S60 phones can also run Python scripts when the interpreter Python for S60 is installed, with a custom made API that allows for Bluetooth support and such. There is also an interactive console to allow the user to write Python scripts directly from the phone.
Deployment
Once developed, Symbian applications need to find a route to customers' mobile phones. They are packaged in SIS files which may be installed over-the-air, via PC connect, Bluetooth or on a memory card. An alternative is to partner with a phone manufacturer and have the software included on the phone itself. Applications must be Symbian Signed for Symbian OS 9.x in order to make use of certain capabilities (system capabilities, restricted capabilities and device manufacturer capabilities).[53] Applications can now be signed for free.[54]
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Technology domains and packages
Symbian's design is subdivided into technology domains,[55] each of which comprises a number of software packages.[56] Each technology domain has its own roadmap, and the Symbian Foundation has a team of technology managers who manage these technology domain roadmaps.
Every package is allocated to exactly one technology domain, based on the general functional area to which the package contributes and by which it may be influenced. By grouping related packages by themes, the Symbian Foundation hopes to encourage a strong community to form around them and to generate discussion and review.
The Symbian System Model[57] illustrates the scope of each of the technology domains across the platform packages.
Packages are owned and maintained by a package owner, a named individual from an organization member of the Symbian Foundation, who accepts code contributions from the wider Symbian community and is responsible for package.
Symbian kernel
The Symbian kernel (EKA2) supports sufficiently fast real-time response to build a single-core phone around it – that is, a phone in which a single processor core executes both the user applications and the signalling stack.[58] The real-time kernel has a microkernel architecture containing only the minimum, most basic primitives and functionality, for maximum robustness, availability and responsiveness. It has been termed a nanokernel, because it needs an extended kernel to implement any other abstractions. It contains a scheduler, memory management and device drivers, with networking, telephony and file system support services in the OS Services Layer or the Base Services Layer. The inclusion of device drivers means the kernel is not a true microkernel.
Design
Symbian features pre-emptive multitasking and memory protection, like other operating systems (especially those created for use on desktop computers). EPOC's approach to multitasking was inspired by VMS and is based on asynchronous server-based events.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Symbian OS was created with three systems design principles in mind:
1. the integrity and security of user data is paramount 2. user time must not be wasted 3. all resources are scarce
To best follow these principles, Symbian uses a microkernel, has a request-and-callback approach to services, and maintains separation between user interface and engine. The OS is optimised for low-power battery-based devices and for ROM-based systems (e.g. features like XIP and re-entrancy in shared libraries). Applications, and the OS itself, follow an object- oriented design: Model-view-controller (MVC).
Later OS iterations diluted this approach in response to market demands, notably with the introduction of a real-time kernel and a platform security model in versions 8 and 9.
There is a strong emphasis on conserving resources which is exemplified by Symbian-specific programming idioms like descriptors and a cleanup stack. Similar methods exist to conserve storage space. Further, all Symbian programming is event-based, and the central processing unit (CPU) is switched into a low power mode when applications are not directly dealing with an event. This is done via a programming idiom called active objects. Similarly the Symbian approach to threads and processes is driven by reducing overheads.
Operating system
The All over Model contains the following layers, from top to bottom:
UI Framework Layer
Application Services Layer
Java ME
OS Services Layer
generic OS services
communications services
multimedia and graphics services
connectivity services
Base Services Layer
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Kernel Services & Hardware Interface Layer
The Base Services Layer is the lowest level reachable by user-side operations; it includes the File Server and User Library, a Plug-In Framework which manages all plug-ins, Store, Central Repository, DBMS and cryptographic services. It also includes the Text Window Server and the Text Shell: the two basic services from which a completely functional port can be created without the need for any higher layer services.
Symbian has a microkernel architecture, which means that the minimum necessary is within the kernel to maximise robustness, availability and responsiveness. It contains a scheduler, memory management and device drivers, but other services like networking, telephony and filesystem support are placed in the OS Services Layer or the Base Services Layer. The inclusion of device drivers means the kernel is not a true microkernel. The EKA2 real-time kernel, which has been termed a nanokernel, contains only the most basic primitives and requires an extended kernel to implement any other abstractions.
Symbian is designed to emphasise compatibility with other devices, especially removable media file systems. Early development of EPOC led to adopting FAT as the internal file system, and this remains, but an object-oriented persistence model was placed over the underlying FAT to provide a POSIX-style interface and a streaming model. The internal data formats rely on using the same APIs that create the data to run all file manipulations. This has resulted in data- dependence and associated difficulties with changes and data migration.
There is a large networking and communication subsystem, which has three main servers called: ETEL (EPOC telephony), ESOCK (EPOC sockets) and C32 (responsible for serial communication). Each of these has a plug-in scheme. For example, ESOCK allows different ".PRT" protocol modules to implement various networking protocol schemes. The subsystem also contains code that supports short-range communication links, such as Bluetooth, IrDA and USB.
There is also a large volume of user interface (UI) Code. Only the base classes and substructure were contained in Symbian OS, while most of the actual user interfaces were maintained by third parties. This is no longer the case. The three major UIs – S60, UIQ and MOAP – were contributed to Symbian in 2009. Symbian also contains graphics, text layout and font rendering libraries.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) All native Symbian C++ applications are built up from three framework classes defined by the application architecture: an application class, a document class and an application user interface class. These classes create the fundamental application behaviour. The remaining needed functions, the application view, data model and data interface, are created independently and interact solely through their APIs with the other classes.
Many other things do not yet fit into this model – for example, SyncML, Java ME providing another set of APIs on top of most of the OS and multimedia. Many of these are frameworks, and vendors are expected to supply plug-ins to these frameworks from third parties (for example, Helix Player for multimedia codecs). This has the advantage that the APIs to such areas of functionality are the same on many phone models, and that vendors get a lot of flexibility. But it means that phone vendors needed to do a great deal of integration work to make a Symbian OS phone.
Symbian includes a reference user-interface called "TechView." It provides a basis for starting customisation and is the environment in which much Symbian test and example code runs. It is very similar to the user interface from the Psion Series 5 personal organiser and is not used for any production phone user interface.
Symbian UI variants/platforms
Symbian, as it advanced to OS version 7.0, spun off into several different graphical user interfaces, each backed by a certain company or group of companies. Unlike Android OS's cosmetic GUIs, Symbian GUIs are referred to as "platforms" due to more significant modifications and integrations. Things became more complicated when applications developed for different Symbian GUI platforms were not compatible with each other, and this led to OS fragmentation.[59]
User Interfaces platforms that run on or are based on Symbian OS include:
S60, Symbian, also called Series 60.
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Sony Ericsson G700 on Symbian UIQ 3.0, which comes with a resistive touchscreen
It was backed mainly by Nokia. There are several editions of this platform, appearing first as S60 (1st Edition) on Nokia 7650. It was followed by S60 2nd Edition (e.g. Nokia N70), S60 3rd Edition (e.g. Nokia N73) and S60 5th Edition (which introduced touch UI e.g. Nokia N97). The name, S60, was changed to just Symbian after the formation of Symbian Foundation, and subsequently called Symbian^1, 2 and 3.
Series 80 used by Nokia Communicators such as Nokia 9300i.
Series 90 Touch and button based. The only phone using this platform is Nokia 7710.
UIQ backed mainly by Sony Ericsson and then Motorola. It is compatible with both buttons and touch/stylus based inputs. The last major release version is UIQ3.1 in 2008, on Sony Ericsson G900. It was discontinued after the formation of Symbian Foundation, and the decision to consolidate different Symbian UI variants into one led to the adoption of S60 as the version going forward.[60]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) MOAP (Mobile Oriented Applications Platform) [Japan Only] used by Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Sony Ericsson and Sharp-developed phones for NTT DoCoMo. It uses an interface developed specifically for DoCoMo's FOMA "Freedom of Mobile Access" network brand and is based on the UI from earlier Fujitsu FOMA models. The user cannot install new C++ applications. (Japan Only)
OPP [Japan Only], successor of MOAP, used on NTT DoCoMo's FOMA phone.
Market share and competition
In Q1 2004 2.4 million Symbian phones were shipped, double the number as in Q1 2003. Symbian Ltd. was particularly impressed by progress made in Japan.[80]
3.7 million devices were shipped in Q3 2004, a growth of 201% compared to Q3 2003 and market share growing from 30.5% to 50.2%. However in the United States it was much less popular, with a 6% market share in Q3 2004, well behind Palm OS (43%) and Windows Mobile (25%). This has been attributed to North American customers preferring wireless PDAs over smartphones, as well as Nokia's low popularity there.[81]
On 16 November 2006, the 100 millionth smartphone running the OS was shipped.[82] As of 21 July 2009, more than 250 million devices running Symbian OS had been produced.[83]
In 2006, Symbian had 73% of the smartphone market,[84] compared with 22.1% of the market in the second quarter of 2011.[85]
By the end of May 2006, 10 million Symbian-powered phones were sold in Japan, representing 11% of Symbian's total worldwide shipments of 89 million.[86] By November 2007 the figure was 30 million, achieving a market share of 65% by June 2007 in the Japanese market.[87]
Symbian has lost market share over the years as the market has dramatically grown, with new competing platforms entering the market, though its sales have increased during the same timeframe. E.g., although Symbian's share of the global smartphone market dropped from 52.4% in 2008 to 47.2% in 2009, shipments of Symbian devices grew 4.8%, from 74.9 million units to 78.5 million units.[88] From Q2 2009 to Q2 2010, shipments of Symbian devices grew 41.5%, by 8.0 million units, from 19,178,910 units to 27,129,340; compared to an increase of 9.6 million units for Android, 3.3 million units for RIM, and 3.2 million units for Apple.[89]
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Prior reports on device shipments as published in February 2010 showed that the Symbian devices formed a 47.2% share of the smart mobile devices shipped in 2009, with RIMhaving 20.8%, Apple having 15.1% (via iOS), Microsoft having 8.8% (via Windows CE and Windows Mobile) and Android having 4.7%.[88]
In the number of "smart mobile device" sales, Symbian devices were the market leaders for 2010. Statistics showed that Symbian devices formed a 37.6% share of smart mobile devices sold, with Android having 22.7%, RIM having 16%, and Apple having 15.7% (via iOS).[90] Some estimates indicate that the number of mobile devices shipped with the Symbian OS up to the end of Q2 2010 is 385 million.[91]
Over the course of 2009–10, Motorola, Samsung, LG, and Sony Ericsson announced their withdrawal from Symbian in favour of alternative platforms including Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone.[92][93][94][95]
In Q2 2012, according to IDC worldwide market share has dropped to an all-time low of 4.4%.[96]
Criticism
The users of Symbian in the countries with non-Latin alphabets (such as Russia, Ukraine and others) have been criticizing the complicated method of language switching for many years.[97] For example, if a user wants to type a Latin letter, they must call the menu, click the languages item, use arrow keys to choose, for example, the English language from among many other languages, and then press the 'OK' button. After typing the Latin letter, the user must repeat the procedure to return to their native keyboard. This method slows down typing significantly. In touch-phones and QWERTY phones the procedure is slightly different but remains time- consuming. All other mobile operating systems, as well as Nokia's S40 phones, enable switching between two initially selected languages by one click or a single gesture.
Early versions of the firmware for the original Nokia N97, running on Symbian^1/Series 60 5th Edition have been heavily criticized as buggy (also contributed by the low amount of RAM installed in the phone).[98]
In November 2010, Smartphone blog All About Symbian criticized the performance of Symbian's default web browser and recommended the alternative browser Opera
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Mobile.[99]Nokia's Senior Vice President Jo Harlow promised an updated browser in the first quarter of 2011.[100]
There are many different versions and editions of Symbian, which led to fragmentation. Apps and software may be incompatible when installed across different versions of Symbian.[101]
Malware Main article: Mobile virus See also: Mobile security
Symbian OS is subject to a variety of viruses, the best known of which is Cabir. Usually these send themselves from phone to phone by Bluetooth. So far, none have taken advantage of any flaws in Symbian OS – instead, they have all asked the user whether they would like to install the software, with somewhat prominent warnings that it can't be trusted, although some rely on social engineering, often in the form of messages that come with the malware, purporting to be a utility, game or some other application for Symbian.
However, with a view that the average mobile phone user shouldn't have to worry about security, Symbian OS 9.x adopted a UNIX-style capability model (permissions per process, not per object). Installed software is theoretically unable to do damaging things (such as costing the user money by sending network data) without being digitally signed – thus making it traceable. Commercial developers who can afford the cost can apply to have their software signed via the Symbian Signed program. Developers also have the option of self-signing their programs. However, the set of available features does not include access to Bluetooth, IrDA, GSM CellID, voice calls, GPS and few others. Some operators opted to disable all certificates other than the Symbian Signed certificates.
Some other hostile programs are listed below, but all of them still require the input of the user to run.
Drever.A is a malicious SIS file trojan that attempts to disable the automatic startup from Simworks and Kaspersky Symbian Anti-Virus applications.
Locknut.B is a malicious SIS file trojan that pretends to be a patch for Symbian S60 mobile phones. When installed, it drops[clarification needed] a binary that will crash a critical system service component. This will prevent any application from being launched in the phone.
Document shared on www.docsity.com Downloaded by: kasi-viswanath ([email protected]) Mabir.A is basically Cabir with added MMS functionality. The two are written by the same author,[citation needed] and the code shares many similarities. It spreads using Bluetoothvia the same routine as early variants of Cabir. As Mabir.A activates, it will search for the first phone it finds, and starts sending copies of itself to that phone.
Fontal.A is an SIS file trojan that installs a corrupted file which causes the phone to fail at reboot. If the user tries to reboot the infected phone, it will be permanently stick on the reboot, and cannot be used without disinfection – that is, the use of the reformat key combination which causes the phone to lose all data. Being a trojan, Frontal cannot spread by itself – the most likely way for the user to get infected would be to acquire the file from untrusted sources, and then install it to the phone, inadvertently or otherwise.
A new form of malware threat to Symbian OS in the form of 'cooked firmware' was demonstrated at the International Malware Conference, Malcon, December 2010, by Indian hacker Atul Alex.[102][103]
Bypassing platform security
Symbian OS 9.x devices can be hacked to remove the platform security introduced in OS 9.1 onwards, allowing users to execute unsigned code.[104] This allows altering system files, and access to previously locked areas of the OS. The hack was criticised by Nokia for potentially increasing the threat posed by mobile viruses as unsigned code can be executed.[105]
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