Essential Guide to Wireless Communications Applications, The

Mobile OSs

While Microsoft dominates the computer desktop, there is much more competition among mobile phone operating systems. Two other companies are duking it out with Microsoft for leadership in this market, and they have managed to push it into third place. Table 10.1 shows the names of their systems for different classes of device.

Table 10.1. Operating Systems for Different Device Families

Device/Company	Symbian	Microsoft	Palm Computing
Smartphones	EPOC32 Crystal	Mobile Explorer	PalmOS
Tablets	EPOC32 Quartz	Windows CE PocketPC (Mercury)	PalmOS
Clamshells	EPOC32 Pearl	Windows CE (Mars)	N/A
Subnotebooks	EPOC32 Pearl	Windows CE Pro (Jupiter)	N/A

EPOC

As phones began to incorporate computer-type features and customers demanded wireless Internet access, the ...