The newentrantsin mobile OS segment

The smartphone ecosystem today has
two dominant players: Apple’s iOS
and Google’s Android operating
systems. A late entrant, Android, has
been quick to catch up with iOS and
the Open operating system only
seems to be surging ahead.

Given the success of Android, many
other Open Source paradigms are
being floated, most notably the Free
and Open Source projects Firefox (of
browser fame) and Ubuntu that are
re-making their debut this year in
the commercial smartphone
segment. Together, these projects
that have been successful in the
technology segments they currently
operate in could perhaps help break
into the combined monopoly of Apple
and Google in the smartphone
segment.

Canonical’s Ubuntu is trying to
market the idea that smartphones
must be as capable as one’s PC and
are trying to port the Ubuntu OS
from the desktop with minimum
changes so that it can offer a unified
experience across all platforms.
Mozilla’s Firefox OS too targets the
low-end phones (in the smartphone
segment) with an all HTML5
approach, implying that every
application that would run on the
smartphone will offer a website like
experience.

PC out of a smartphone
Ubuntu is among the most popular
Linux-based desktop operating
systems today. The backlash Ubuntu
has had to face with its changes in
the user interface since its release in
April, 2011, has now evolved into the
more stable “Unity” interface — a
futuristic, touch-oriented graphical
user interface. Unity, as the name
suggests, was projected as the thread
weaving and unifying all the
computing environments — PCs,
laptops, tablets, TVs and smartphones
that run on Ubuntu. The smartphone
link had been missing, and now
Canonical is all geared up to flex its
muscles by porting Ubuntu on the
smartphones.

Mark Shuttleworth, in a virtual
keynote address to the user
community, in January 2013,
presented Canonical’s ideas for
Ubuntu on smartphones. At the
Consumer Electronics Show 2013,
Ubuntu OS was demonstrated on
Google Nexus.

Ubuntu’s Unity interface is what
Canonical is betting big on. The Unity
interface, even on desktops yields
more space for users with less focus
on permanent navigation or menu
options. This again if ported well on
smartphones will be a plus. The
navigation on Unity will be the same
across all platforms, unlike Apple’s
iOS or Windows OS, which differ on
platforms to match up to the
hardware constraints. Mr.
Shuttleworth describes the Unity
interface on laptops, TVs and
smartphone as “Individually great in
their own right, and coherent as a
family”.
Applications are already in plenty for
the desktop platform from the
Ubuntu Software Center, and Ubuntu
has invited developers to write apps
for the mobile platform using the
Webkit. Canonical has for long had
the vision of getting Ubuntu on the
mobile platform, and in small steps
they have inched close, ready to take
the dip in the deluge.

Web all the way
The second most promising entrant
in this segment is the Mozilla
Foundation’s latest attempt to build
an operating system that’s as free as
the Web. Mozilla believes that
Android is not as Open Source an
ecosystem as Google claims and that
most design decisions are made by
Google and pushed down to the
developers and that often the source
code of the OS is not released after
the devices are shipped. Mozilla
claims that Firefox OS will provide an
alternative to these “walled
gardens”.
Mozilla Foundation started the
operating system in the name of Boot
to Gecko, now more commonly called
the Firefox OS. This is an all HTML5,
Javascript and CSS framework, and
truly Open Source. Technically, the
biggest challenge for a Web-based
operating system is to gain access to
the hardware such as telephony or
camera. For, in conventional
browsing environments the Web
requests are handled by the native
operating system like iOS, Android or
Windows, creating an abstraction
between hardware and the Web
framework. Using Javascript and Web
Application Programming Interface
(API) Boot to Gecko has already been
able to demonstrate most of the
functions by directly accessing
system resources.
The first prototype of this was
demonstrated in the Consumer
Electronics Show 2013, on a ZTE-
made smartphone. The official
statement of Mozilla is that Firefox
OS will be in its final form in a couple
weeks, ready to be ported and
released in the market.