Operating systems for Net devices

The market for Net devices, and along with that, the market for Net device OS's is growing rapidly. There is a high degree of volatility in the market for these devices, and their operating systems as there is not yet a dominant design. The battle for dominance in the OS market seems to be led by three players: Microsoft, Symbian and Palm OS.

1 Introduction

1.1 Background of this Essay

1.2 Objectives and Scope

2 Net devices

However, during the last couple of years more and more devices such as mobile telephones or PDA's are acquiring some of the characteristics of computers. It becomes apparent that users do not always need a "real" PC if they want to access information. Often, a relatively cheap, battery powered device can be much more useful for that purpose. If, ofcourse it can connect to the network.This has led some to speculate about the "Death of the PC-centric Era"[1]. Even IBM Corp. CEO Lou Gerstner is quotes as saying "The PC era is over"[2].

The Internet has illustrated in a very powerful way the value of connectedness for devices. To illustrate this point, we have made an  inventory of this new category of devices.

By far the most widely used application on the Internet today is Email. Email is considered to be the "killer app", that is for a large part responsible for the dramatic growth in Internet usage. Therefore it is not surprising that a lot of new, portable devices have been developed that are capable of receiving email, without a PC. One example of such a device is Sharp's Telmail, a cheap, handheld device that can be used to write and access email from anywhere, by using any ordinary phone.

Another category of Net devices are the PDA's. Their main function is personal information management. This means that they contain lists of contact information, they have calender-and schedulting functions, to-do lists and memo functionality. Also these devices are relatively cheap, they operate with relatively primitive processors, and they can synchronise with computers, or with a server on a network to update information. The most successful series [3] in this category is the Palm series of organisers, manufactured by 3Com.These devices are really little computers, that can independently send and receive email or surf the world wide web when connected to the Internet with a modem.

Another approach is chosen by companies who bring the Internet to the TV. The fast growing [4] new category of set-top boxes like Sony Co's Web-TV is aimed at consumers without a PC. For a large percentage of the population, a PC, is still a much too complicated device. It does not make sense for them to own a PC with a very complex multi-threaded operating system, when all they want is to write a few emails, and surf the web. A set-top box is a cheap solution that lets consumers do just that, with a minimum of technical expertise required. Most devices offer also some degree of integration with the TV functions, such as web-picture in picture, or electronic television program guides.

And then there is the exploding number of mobile phones. Because of the increasing capabilities of mobile phones, and the increasing capacity of mobile digital networks, a lot of mobile phone manufacturers see offering Net access as a local expansion of their product lines[5]. The pioneer in this field of so-called smartphones was the Finnish telecommunications equipment manufacturer Nokia Oy. Since 1996 it has been manufacturing a smart GSM phone, called the Communicator. This device allows the user to send and recieve email, faxes and now even digital pictures. With the introduction of new digital network technologies such as GPRS, HSCSD and finally UMTS, the possible applications for these devices are going to dramatically increase.

The last category that we want to discuss is the category of the "weird" devices.It is expected that in the future, access to the net will extend to many more categories of devices. For instance, clarion has announced the AutoPC. This device, based on a Microsoft specification and using Windowws CE, is designed to fit in a car dashboard and provide a variety of servivces from Internet connections to directions using GPS systems. Input is via voice recognition. Electrolux has rewcently announced the Screenfridge. This is a refridgerator that comes with a screen-based PC in its door and a built-in modem for connecting to the Internet. The vendor expects it to be able to monitor food quantities and automatically order more from Irnet-based grocers. Other possible applications include connecting to recipe databases and non-food functions such as online banking.

3 Operating systems

Another major player in this market is 3Com sibsidiary Palm, Inc. This company introduced thePalmpilot line of PDA's in 1996 [6]. By this time, around 6 million units have been sold. This rate of market acceptance is much faster than the PC, or even the Sony Walkman. In 1998, 3Com enjoyed a 41% marketshare in the market for PDA's. [3]. This alone makes Palm OS a major player in the Net device market. Another very strong aspect of the Palm OS is the large developer community. Currently, there are about 2.000 active developers for the Palm platform, with around 22000 individual applications, varying from word processors to chessgames and webbrowsers to database applications. The drawback of the PalmOS is that it is very device-specific. PalmOS only runs on a limited varyity of PDA's, and thus far only supports a screen size of 160 x 160 pixels.

Symbian, a consortium between Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Psion, is developing Epoc32 Operating system specifically for a new generation of mobile Net devices.It is hoping to establish Epoc as an open industry standard to operate a wide variety of devices, from PDA's to smart phones and set-top boxes[7]. Although there have not been many products introduced on basis of the Epoc operating system, it is widely expected that the marketing power of the consortium members will be strong enough to give Epoc a significant role in the future of Net devices, as speach and data are converging.. As for the technical aspects of the OS: because Epoc has been specially designed for mobile devices (unlike Microsoft's WinCE), it makes better use of their more limited batteries and memory. Since speech, which will increasingly drive these devices, uses up a lot of power and memory, that is a crucial advantage[8] .

Other operating systems that are used in Net devices are Geoworks, that is used in the Nokia Communicator series, OS-9, developed by Microware and WindRiver, used in industrial embedded systems, and, for instance in the Sojourner rover of the Mars pathfinder mission.These systems have rather small marketshares, and are therefore not discusses elaborately here.

4 Current developments and Conclusion

In other news, Symbian partner Motorola has announced that is will be using OS-9 for its next generation of smartphones, rather than Epoc32.

Also, Palm and Nokia announced that they will be developing a new generation of smart phones using the Palm OS, on top of an Epoc kernel. The new product will carry the Palm OS brand, and will be compatible with all the existing Palm OS application. In a related deal, Palm and Symbian announced that they will be studying ways to make their operating systems interoperable. 3Com, Palm's mother company is even rumored to be joining the Symbian alliance.

All these developments pose a big threat to Microsoft, and its WinCE operating systrem platform. However, given the extraordinary amount of resources and marketing muscle that the company has, is probably going to continue to be a major influence in the market.

For the future, we expect to see a consolidation in the market, that will particularly be driven by the development community. It is likely that those platforms that manage to get enough critical mass in both the installed base and availability of applications, will win the battle for the Net device OS market.

References