Symbian: "Independence" is just a word.
Symbian is a joint venture company established by Nokia, Motorola, Siemens and other mobile phone manufacturers, specializing in the research and development of mobile phone operating systems. Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Siemens are all customers and shareholders of Saipan.
Compared with the brand influence of many international first-class mobile phone companies in Symbian camp, Symbian's low-key style has not made too many mobile phone users familiar with the name. However, with the support of many world-class mobile phone manufacturers, Symbian accounts for 70% of the global high-end mobile phone shipments, which is a monopoly, close to a de facto monopoly.
Although the Symbian camp consists of several mobile phone manufacturers, Symbian OS is actually in the hands of Nokia. This makes other mobile phone manufacturers accustomed to doing everything themselves and taking the initiative in the market inevitably "change their minds." For example, Motorola has a soft spot for Linux and put forward the development idea of "Linux+Java" early; Samsung, which later joined the Symbian camp, implemented a regional segmentation strategy: promoting Microsoft's Samrtphone in North America, loving Linux in Asia, and only showing "support" for the Symbian camp in Europe. Only the dominant Nokia carries out the terminal Symbian strategy from beginning to end.
Symbian's success is attributed to its CEO David Levin's strong support for traditional mobile phone manufacturers. Nokia has repeatedly stressed that in the face of competition from other competitors in the smartphone operating system market, the Symbian camp "mainly relies on the offensive and defensive alliance between manufacturers to keep competitors out". However, under the leadership of Nokia, whether this "alliance" can be maintained for a long time is still unknown. In fact, unless Nokia can maintain a dominant position in the field of mobile phones, Symbian OS will not be dominant forever. However, faced with the ambition and strength of Microsoft and Intel in mobile phone manufacturing, it is difficult for Nokia to do this.
Moreover, Symbian operating system itself may not be the most perfect smartphone operating system at present. Symbian's initial starting point is a mobile phone operating system, which mainly completes the basic functions of calling. At the beginning of the design, we did not consider adding more PC-like functions. Even though Symbian OS 7.0 released in February 2002 provides support for mobile communication networks such as GSM, WCDMA, cdma2000 1X, compared with Microsoft's Smartphone2002, Symbian has the advantage of supporting Java, but it still lacks interoperability and expansibility with PDA, PC and Internet.
The data analysis of some professional consulting companies has sounded the alarm for a dominant Symbian camp. According to some media forecasts, by 2009, Symbian's share in the mobile operating system market may even drop below 50%. The future of Nokia's monopoly on Saipan is not optimistic.
Smart phone: the continuation of PC
The predecessor of Microsoft smartphone is Stinger, which was launched in 2000. In 2002, Microsoft renamed Stinger operating system Smartphone 2002, and in June of the same year, it launched the world's first color screen mobile phone Orange SPV with Microsoft smartphones. In 2004, Microsoft launched WindowsMobile2003Second Edition, which further expanded the camp of smart phones.
Compared with Symbian system developed from simple mobile phone operating system, smart phone is more similar to the continuation of PC on mobile phone. People in the industry are also accustomed to regard the competition between Symbian and Smartphone as a dispute between "computerization of mobile phones" and "computerization of computers". Compared with the function of Symbian system itself, it is still questioned by some professionals. There is no doubt that Microsoft's smart phone is powerful. Because Microsoft's smartphone operating system is behind the strength of the entire Microsoft empire. It comes down in one continuous line with Windows CE and maintains good interoperability with PC. Maybe you will question the policy that Windows is not open source, which will make it difficult for some small independent developers to develop. However, considering the monopoly position of Windows in the PC market, users of smart phone platforms will definitely not have to worry about the lack of third-party software in the future.
There is no doubt that the Excellence of smart phones has a huge impact on the market. For Microsoft, mobile phones play an important role. NET strategy, Microsoft can't give up. For the Symbian camp, the mobile phone operating system is originally its own back garden, and no one can intervene. Therefore, the fierce competition between the two operating systems in terms of vendors and users is inevitable. Although smart phones have advantages in performance, they also have congenital defects. Smartphone platform needs more hardware and the whole system than Symbian, which has caused some obstacles for it to enter the current mainstream market.
However, the biggest problem Microsoft faces in the mobile phone market is the lack of strong support from traditional mobile phone manufacturers. This is also the fundamental reason why smart phones have not made achievements in the mobile phone market. However, in the second half of 2004, Microsoft's penetration into the field of mobile phone manufacturing achieved initial results, and the whole situation changed. In the domestic market, more than 20 new products using Microsoft mobile operating system, including domestic brands such as dopod, Panda and Lenovo, have entered the market.
Recently, it is rumored that Microsoft may promote it by providing WindowsMobile license for free. If the rumors are true, smart phones will become a cheap mobile operating system solution and win the support of a large number of traditional mobile phone manufacturers. Coupled with the cooperation of Intel and the habitual dependence of traditional IT companies on Microsoft after turning to mobile phone manufacturing, it is only a matter of time before smart phones shine. However, it is still difficult for smart phones to continue the glory of Windows in the PC field.
Linux: gradually showing its edge
"Linux" seems destined to be a miracle-making thing from birth. Recently, Linux has also extended its reach to the smartphone operating system. In order to reverse the unfavorable position in Symbian camp and seize the smart phone market, Motorola has long advocated the development idea of "Linux+Java". At present, Motorola has invested a lot of money in Linux. It is reported that Motorola has spent three years developing its own operating system based on Linux, with an investment of 65.438+0.5 billion US dollars.
In September 2003, Samsung launched the first CDMA smartphone SCH-i5 19 based on Linux system platform. It is said that it uses PC-level processing power to tap the wireless application functions of CDMA 1X network, including handwriting input, surfing the Internet, sending and receiving emails, taking photos in continuous shooting and so on. NEC has repeatedly stressed that almost 100% of its high-end 3G mobile phone products will adopt Linux. NEC also revealed that the mobile phone Linux kernel it is developing uses MontaVista Linux consumer electronic version, and will add GUI systems such as X Window System, GTK+ and glibc on this basis, and plans to apply middleware of data processing, multimedia technology and calling technology to Linux to build a rich Linux mobile phone software platform.
So, what makes many companies look at Linux with new eyes? Think about the legend of Linux in the PC market, and it is not difficult to find out why. The biggest feature of Linux is that it is fundamentally open source, so that mobile phone manufacturers can develop Linux operating system suitable for their mobile phones according to the actual situation. This will not only make our products unique, but also avoid being controlled by others, and also meet the needs of users in many aspects to the greatest extent.
The openness of Linux source code also makes its cost lower than other proprietary operating systems. NEC has said that one of the reasons for adopting Linux operating system is to reduce the production cost of smart phones. Because of the openness of Linux system, it will be easier to develop JAVA technology on this platform. For Motorola, an international mobile phone giant frustrated in Symbian camp, Linux will help it master the control of the mobile phone platform and occupy a strong position in the future smart phone market competition. In addition, after years of development, Linux platform has accumulated rich application software, which will be easily transferred to mobile phone platform.
China manufacturers look forward to a breakthrough.
Let's turn our eyes from the international giants back to China. Just when the domestic mobile phone manufacturers are in a depression, the local Linux mobile phone army is advancing by leaps and bounds, and the competition with Microsoft Windows Mobile and Symbine operating systems is fierce. Zhongke Hongqi Company participated in the development and marketing of Samsung Linux mobile phone SCH-i5 19. In addition to Nanjing Fan Shi, which was acquired by PalmSource, Beijing Case Peng Hao and Shanghai Easy People also have Linux mobile operating systems. Moreover, they are all relying on the east wind of Linux, and the market is bullish all the way. According to relevant sources of Easy People, they have received olive branches from several mobile phone manufacturers. Case Peng Hao's partner list already includes many well-known companies in the industry, such as Panda, Lenovo, CECT Ziguang and NEC.
The localization of international mobile phone operating system manufacturers represented by Palmsource also makes the R&D strength of China local mobile phone operating system by going up one flight of stairs. President Zhang Yuan said that the strong cooperation with Softening Technology can further promote the improvement of software R&D level in Gulou District and even Nanjing, and become a force to help Nanjing Gulou District achieve the goal of "software turnover exceeding 65.438+000 billion yuan in five years".
In 2005, when domestic mobile phones suffered a cold snap, it became the choice of most domestic mobile phone manufacturers who were eager to make a difference to advance to the high end of the industrial chain and realize the transfer from "Made in China" to "Created in China". TCL chose to acquire Alcatel's mobile phone business; BenQ chose to acquire Siemens to enhance its R&D strength. There are more mobile phone companies? We choose to introduce strategic partners to advance and retreat together with European and American manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola. So much for the combination of domestic mobile phone manufacturers and mobile phone operating system manufacturers. The cooperation between PalmSource and Haier is the product of this background.
Who can be unified in troubled times?
The history of IT industry has repeatedly told us that the support of hardware vendors is often the key to software development. Take the development of Linux in the server market as an example. For a long time since the birth of Linux, Linux has been in an embarrassing situation of "applauding and not making a name for itself". It didn't grow into the mainstream server operating system until it was strongly supported by IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other manufacturers. So far, the share of Linux in the global server market is about 26%, and that of Windows is 44%. However, the growth rate of Linux remains above 24%. It is worth noting that mobile phones are different from PCs. As long as there are enough application software, the operating system itself will not affect the user's choice. In fact, most mobile phone users only know the brand of the mobile phone and don't care what kind of operating system it uses. . It is also based on this law that Motorola creatively put forward the conclusion that "the operating system will become less and less important". Therefore, the author believes that whoever can seize the hearts of mobile phone manufacturers will be the ultimate winner.
Judging from the recent development of the three, the author thinks that whoever can put down the "high above" shelf and shoulder the heavy responsibility of popularizing smart phones will take the lead. At present, most people choose simple "enhanced" mobile phones such as color screens and photos, rather than smart phones in the absolute sense. Symbian pays too much attention to the high-end market, obviously not enough attention to the demands of the mainstream market; Because of the high hardware requirements, it is really difficult for smart phones to quickly cut into the low-end market with huge sales; Relatively speaking, if Linux, which has been supported by some mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola, can grasp the market demand well, it is not impossible to raise its market share to a new level in the short term.
As far as the current mainstream public opinion is concerned, it is generally believed that Microsoft's smart phones and emerging Linux are more likely to win in the future competition. Sig, vice president of global marketing at RidgeRun, boldly predicted that only Microsoft products and Linux would win the competition in the future. However, considering that the wireless field is far more subdivided than the PC field, the future trend of the smartphone operating system market is still confusing.