A mobile operating system is an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

used for

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s, tablets,

smartwatch A smartwatch is a portable wearable computer that resembles a wristwatch. Most modern smartwatches are operated via a touchscreen, and rely on mobile apps that run on a connected device (such as a smartphone) in order to provide core functions. ...

es, smartglasses, or other non-laptop

personal Personal may refer to: Aspects of persons' respective individualities * Privacy * Personality * Personal, personal advertisement, variety of classified advertisement used to find romance or friendship Companies * Personal, Inc., a Washington, ...

mobile computing device A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. Mod ...

s. While computers such as

laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

s are "mobile", the operating systems used on them are usually not considered mobile, as they were originally designed for

desktop computer A desktop computer, often abbreviated as desktop, is a personal computer designed for regular use at a stationary location on or near a desk (as opposed to a portable computer) due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuratio ...

s that historically did not have or need specific ''mobile'' features. This "fine line" distinguishing mobile and other forms has become blurred in recent years, due to the fact that newer devices have become smaller and more mobile, unlike the hardware of the past. Key notabilities blurring this line are the introduction of

tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers ...

s, light

s, and the hybridization of the

2-in-1 PC A 2-in-1 laptop, also known as 2-in-1 PC, 2-in-1 tablet, laplet, tabtop, laptop tablet, or simply 2-in-1, is a portable computer that has features of both tablets and laptops. 2-in-1 PCs consist of portable computer components within light ...

s. Mobile operating systems combine features of a

operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use, and usually including a wireless inbuilt modem and SIM tray for telephone and data connection. In Q1 2018, over 123 million smartphones were sold (the most ever recorded) with 60.2% running Android and 20.9% running

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. Sales in 2012 were 1.56 billion; sales in 2023 were 1.43 billion with 53.32% being Android. Android alone has more sales than the popular desktop operating system

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and smartphone use (even without tablets) outnumbers desktop use. Mobile devices, with mobile communications abilities (for example,

s), contain two mobile operating systems. The main user-facing software platform is supplemented by a second low-level proprietary real-time operating system which operates the radio and other hardware. Research has shown that these low-level systems may contain a range of security vulnerabilities permitting malicious base stations to gain high levels of control over the mobile device. Mobile operating systems have had the most use of any operating system since 2017 (measured by web use).TechFoogle, June 30, 2019
Top 10 Mobile Operating System

Timeline

Mobile operating system milestones mirror the development of

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s, PDAs, and smartphones:

Pre-1990

* 1990–2010 –

Mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s use

embedded system An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is e ...

s to control operation.

1993–1999

* 1993 ** April –

PenPoint OS The PenPoint OS was one of the earliest operating systems written specifically for graphical tablets and personal digital assistants. It was a product of GO Corporation. PenPoint OS ran on a number of Intel x86-powered tablet PCs including IBM ...

by GO Corp. become available on the

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

EO Personal Communicator The EO is an early commercial tablet computer that was created by Eo Inc. (later acquired by AT&T Corporation), and released in April 1993. Eo (Latin for "I go") was the hardware spin-out of GO Corporation. Officially named the AT&T EO Personal ...

. ** August –

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

launches

Newton OS ''Newton OS'' is a discontinued operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple Computer, Inc. between 1993 and 1997. It was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently. Ma ...

running on their Newton series of portable computers. * 1994 ** March –

Magic Cap Magic Cap (short for Magic Communicating Applications Platform) is a discontinued object-oriented operating system for PDAs developed by General Magic. Tony Fadell was a contributor to the platform, Bill Atkinson shows the credits screen on M ...

OS by

General Magic General Magic was an American software and electronics company co-founded by Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat. Based in Mountain View, California, the company developed precursors to "USB, software modems, small touchscreens, to ...

is first introduced on the

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Magic Link The Magic Link was a Personal Intelligent Communicator marketed by Sony from 1994, based on General Magic's Magic Cap operating system. The Magic Link PIC-1000 was brought to market by Jerry Fiala Sr at Sony. The "Link" part of the name refers ...

PDA. ** August – The first smartphone, the

IBM Simon The IBM Simon Personal Communicator (simply known as IBM Simon) is a cellular phone and personal digital assistant (PDA) designed by International Business Machines (IBM), released in 1994. Built on an x86 processor, the IBM Simon features a ...

, has a touchscreen,

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

, and PDA features. * 1996 ** March – The

Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

Pilot 1000 The Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 are the first generations of PDAs produced by Palm Computing (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics). It was introduced in March 1996. The Pilot uses a Motorola 68328 processor at 16 MHz, and had 128 kB (Pilo ...

personal digital assistant is introduced with the

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a discontinued mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. ...

mobile operating system. ** August – Nokia releases the

Nokia 9000 Communicator The Nokia 9000 Communicator mobile device is the first product in Nokia's Communicator series, announced at CeBIT 1996 and introduced into the market on five months later, 15 August 1996. It is powered by an AMD Elan 24 MHz Intel i386 C ...

running an integrated system based on the PEN/GEOS 3.0 OS from

Geoworks Berkeley Softworks, Inc., later GeoWorks Corporation, was an American software-development company founded by American computing engineer and former Mattel employee Brian P. Dougherty in 1983. It is best known for its GEOS operating systems for ...

. * 1997 – EPOC32 first appears on the

Psion Series 5 The Psion Series 5 is a personal digital assistant (PDA) from Psion. It came in two main variants, the ''Series 5'' (launched in 1997) and the ''Series 5mx'' (1999), the latter having a faster processor, clearer liquid crystal display (LCD), a ...

PDA. Release 6 of EPOC32 will later be renamed to

Symbian OS Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

. * 1998 – Symbian Ltd. is formed as a joint venture by Psion,

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

, and Nokia, Psion's EPOC32 OS becomes Symbian's EPOC operating system, and is later renamed to Symbian OS. Symbian's OS was used by those companies and several other major mobile phone brands, but especially Nokia. * 1999 ** June –

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

's pdQ becomes the first smartphone with

. ** October – Nokia S40 Platform is officially introduced along with the Nokia 7110, the first phone with T9

predictive text Predictive text is an input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on the physical numeric keypads of mobile phones and in accessibility technologies. Each key press results in a ''prediction'' rather than r ...

input and a

Wireless Application Protocol Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an obsolete technical standard for accessing information over a mobile cellular network. Introduced in 1999, WAP allowed users with compatible mobile devices to browse content such as news, weather and sp ...

(WAP) browser for accessing specially formatted Internet data.

2000s

* 2000 – The Ericsson R380 is released with EPOC32 Release 5, marking the first use on a phone of what's to become known as Symbian OS (as of Release 6). * 2001 ** June – Nokia's Symbian Series 80 platform is first released on the

Nokia 9210 Communicator The Nokia 9210 Communicator is the third-generation Communicator series mobile phone produced by Nokia, announced on 21 November 2000 and released in June 2001. It greatly improved on the second-generation Nokia 9110 Communicator, providing a c ...

This is the first phone running an OS branded as Symbian, and the first phone using that OS that allows user installation of additional software. ** September –

Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW, also known as Brew MP or Qualcomm BREW) is an obsolete application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party a ...

(BREW) platform on their REX

real-time operating system A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time computing applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. A RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix ...

(RTOS) is first released on the Kyocera QCP-3035. * 2002 ** March ***

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

releases its first smartphone, running Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). *** UIQ is first released, at v2.0, on

, and becomes available later in the year on the Sony Ericsson P800, the successor to the Ericsson R380. ** June ***

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

's first

Windows CE Windows CE, later known as Windows Embedded CE and Windows Embedded Compact, is a discontinued operating system developed by Microsoft for mobile and embedded devices. It was part of the Windows Embedded family and served as the software foun ...

(Pocket PC) smartphones are introduced. ***

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

's Symbian Series 60 (S60) platform is released with the

Nokia 7650 The Nokia 7650 is a consumer-oriented GSM mobile phone developed by Nokia,announced in 19 November 2001 and released in June 2002. Belonging to the fashion and experimental (List of Nokia products#Fashion and Experimental Series .287xxx Series.29 ...

, Nokia's first phone with a camera and

Multimedia Messaging Service Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from a mobile phone over a cellular network. Users and providers may refer to such a message as a PXT, a picture message, or a multimedia ...

(MMS). S60 would form the basis of the OS on most of Nokia's smartphones until 2011, when they adopted Microsoft's

Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel. It serves as the successo ...

. S60 was also used on some phones from

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

and others, and later by

Sony Ericsson Sony Mobile Communications Inc., originally Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, was a Multinational corporation, multinational consumer electronics and telecommunications company, best known for its Mobile phones, mobile phone products. The ...

after the consolidation of some Symbian UI variants in 2008. ** October – The Danger Hiptop (T-Mobile Sidekick in U.S.) is first released by

Danger, Inc. Danger, Inc. was an American company specializing in hardware design, software, and services for mobile computing devices. Founded on December 9, 1999, its most notable product was the T-Mobile US, T-Mobile T-Mobile Sidekick, Sidekick (also known ...

, running DangerOS. * 2003 –

introduces first Linux-based cellphone

Motorola A760 This is a list of Motorola products. Motorola Mobility is an American subsidiary company of Chinese multinational technology company Lenovo that manufactures consumer electronics and telecommunications products. Computers Laptops * ML910 * M ...

base on Linux MontaVista distribution. * 2005 ** May – Microsoft announces Windows Mobile 5.0. ** November – Nokia introduces

Maemo Maemo is a Linux-based software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the Free software movement, community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and Software development ...

OS on the first, small Internet tablet, the N770, with a 4.13" screen. * 2007 ** January – Apple's

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

with iOS (named "iPhone OS" for its first three releases) is introduced as a "widescreen iPod", "mobile phone", and "Internet communicator". ** February – Microsoft announces Windows Mobile 6.0. ** May –

announces the Palm Foleo, a "Mobile Companion" device similar to a

subnotebook Subnotebook, also called ultraportable, superportable, handtop, mini notebook or mini laptop, is a type of laptop computer that is smaller and lighter than a typical notebook-sized laptop. Types and sizes As typical laptop sizes have decreas ...

computer, running a modified

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

kernel and relying on a companion

Palm Treo The Palm Treo (stylized as Trēo) is a discontinued line of smartphones originally developed by Handspring, which was bought by Palm, Inc. They were then manufactured and maintained by Palm, Inc. Treos had a number of integrated features such ...

smartphone to send and retrieve mail, as well as provide data connectivity when away from WiFi. Palm canceled Foleo development on September 4, 2007, after facing public criticism. ** June – World's very first

is released in the United States. ** November –

Open Handset Alliance The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a consortium led by Google that develops the Android (operating system), Android mobile operating system. Its member firms included HTC, Sony, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung Electr ...

(OHA) is established, led by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

with 34 members (

HTC HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t), or High Tech Computer Corporation (abbreviated and trading as HTC), is a Taiwanese consumer electronics corporatio ...

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

, LG, etc.) * 2008 ** February – LiMo Foundation announces the first phones running the LiMo mobile Linux distribution, from

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

, Panasonic Mobile, and

, released later in the year. The LiMo Foundation later became the Tizen Association and LiMo was subsumed by

Tizen Tizen () is a Linux-based operating system primarily developed by Samsung Electronics and supported by the Linux Foundation. The project was originally conceived as an HTML5-based platform for mobile devices to succeed MeeGo. It was backed by o ...

. ** June – Nokia becomes the sole owner of

Symbian Ltd Symbian Ltd. was a software development and licensing consortium company, known for the Symbian operating system (OS), for smartphones and some related devices. Its headquarters were in Southwark, London, England, with other offices opened in C ...

. The

Symbian Foundation The Symbian Foundation was a non-profit organisation that stewarded the Symbian operating system for mobile phones which previously had been owned and licensed by Symbian Ltd. Symbian Foundation never directly developed the platform, but evange ...

was then formed to co-ordinate the future development of the Symbian platform among the corporations using it, in a manner similar to the

with Android. Nokia remained the major contributor to Symbian's code. ** July – Apple releases

iPhone OS 2 iPhone OS 2 is the second major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iPhone OS 1. It was the first version of iOS to support third-party applications via the App Store. iPhone OS 2.2.1 is ...

with the

iPhone 3G The iPhone 3G is a smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, second generation of iPhone, successor to the IPhone (1st generation), original iPhone, and was introduced on June 9, 2008, at the WWDC#2008, W ...

, making available Apple's

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

. ** October – OHA releases Android (based on

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

) 1.0 with the

HTC Dream The HTC Dream (also known as the T-Mobile G1 in the United States and parts of Europe, and as the Era G1 in Poland) is a smartphone developed by HTC. First released in October 2008 for $179 with a 2-year contract to T-Mobile, the Dream was the f ...

(T-Mobile G1) as the first Android phone. ** November – Symbian^1, the

's touch-specific S60-based platform (equivalent to S60 5th edition) is first released on Nokia's first touchscreen Symbian phone, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, with a resistive screen and a stylus. Symbian^1 being derived from S60 meant that support for UIQ disappeared and no further devices using UIQ were released. * 2009 ** January ***

announces Moblin 2, specifically created for

netbook A netbook is a small-sized laptop computer; they were primarily sold from 2007 until around 2013, designed mostly as a means of accessing the Internet and being significantly less expensive than regular-sized laptops. At their inception in l ...

s that run the company's

Atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...

processor. In April 2009 Intel turned Moblin over to the

Linux Foundation The Linux Foundation (LF) is a non-profit organization established in 2000 to support Linux development and open-source software projects. Background The Linux Foundation started as Open Source Development Labs in 2000 to standardize and prom ...

. *** Palm introduces

webOS webOS, also known as LG webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices, such as smart TVs, that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initially developed by Palm, Inc. (which was acquired by Hewlett ...

with the

Palm Pre The Palm Pre , styled as palm prē, is a multitasking smartphone that was designed and marketed by Palm with a multi-touch screen and a sliding keyboard. The smartphone was the first to use Palm's Linux-based mobile operating system, webOS. T ...

(released in June). The new OS is not backward-compatible with their previous Palm OS. ** February ***

announces that no further devices with Palm OS are going to be released by the company. (The last was the

Palm Centro The Palm Centro is a smartphone marketed by Palm, Inc. beginning its release on October 14, 2007, offering the functionality of the larger Treo 755p in a smaller size. The Centro is one of the last devices to run the Palm OS operating system. ...

, released October 14, 2007.) ***

announces Windows Mobile 6.5, an "unwanted stopgap" update to Windows Mobile 6.1 intended to bridge the gap between version 6.1 and the then yet-to-be released Windows Mobile 7 (later canceled in favor of

). The first devices running it appeared in late October 2009. ** May – DangerOS 5.0 becomes available, based on

NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...

. ** June – Apple releases

iPhone OS 3 iPhone OS 3 (''stylized as iPhone OS 3.0'') is the third major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., succeeding iPhone OS 2. It was announced on March 17, 2009, and was released on June 17, 2009. It was succeeded ...

with the

iPhone 3GS The iPhone 3GS, stylized as , is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, third generation of the iPhone and the successor to the iPhone 3G. It was unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldw ...

. ** November – Nokia releases the

Nokia N900 The Nokia N900 is a smartphone made by Nokia, launched at Nokia World on 2 September 2009 and released in November. Superseding the Nokia N810, the N900's default operating system, Maemo 5, is a Linux-based OS originally developed for the Nokia ...

, its first and only smartphone running the

OS intended for "handheld computers...with voice capability", while stating that they remain focused on

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

S60 as their smartphone OS. (Nokia had previously released three

Mobile Internet device A mobile Internet device (MID) is a multimedia capable mobile device providing wireless Internet access. They are designed to provide entertainment, information and location-based services for personal or business use. They allow 2-way communicati ...

s running Maemo, without cellular network connectivity.)

2010s

2010

* February **

MeeGo MeeGo is a discontinued Linux distribution hosted by the Linux Foundation, using source code from the operating systems Moblin (produced by Intel) and Maemo (produced by Nokia). MeeGo was primarily targeted at mobile devices and information app ...

is announced, a mobile Linux distribution merging Maemo from Nokia and Moblin from Intel and Linux Foundation, to be hosted by Linux Foundation. MeeGo is not backward-compatible with any previous operating system. **

introduces the Bada OS and shows the first Bada smartphone, the Samsung S8500. It was later released in May 2010. * April ** Apple releases the

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

( first generation) with

iPhone OS 3.2 iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. and was first released in June 2007 alongside the first generation iPhone. iPhone OS was renamed iOS following the release of the iPad starting with iOS 4. With iO ...

. This is the first version of the OS to support tablet computers. For its next major version (4.0) iPhone OS will be renamed iOS. ** HP acquires Palm in order to use

in multiple new products, including smartphones, tablets, and

printers Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James Printer (1 ...

, later stating their intent to use it as the universal platform for all their devices. * May – Microsoft Kin phone line with KIN OS (based on

and a "close cousin" to

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design languag ...

) become available. * June – Apple releases

iOS 4 iOS 4 is the fourth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iPhone OS 3. It was announced at the Apple Special Event on April 8, 2010, and released on June 21, 2010. iOS 4 was the first ...

, renamed from iPhone OS, with the

iPhone 4 The iPhone 4 is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, fourth generation of the iPhone lineup, succeeding the iPhone 3GS and preceding the iPhone 4s. Following a number of notable leaks, ...

. * July – Microsoft Kin phones and KIN OS are discontinued. * September ** Apple releases a variant of iOS powering the new 2nd generation Apple TV. **

Symbian^3 Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

is first released on the

Nokia N8 The Nokia N8 is a touchscreen-based smartphone developed by Nokia. Announced on 27 April 2010, the Nokia N8 was the first device to run on the Symbian^3 mobile operating system and it was the company's flagship device for the year. It was rel ...

. This would be Nokia's last flagship device running Symbian (though not their last Symbian phone), before switching to

for future flagship phones. ** The Danger Hiptop line and DangerOS are discontinued as a result of Microsoft's acquisition of

in 2008. * November **

assumes full control over Symbian as the Symbian Foundation disintegrates. ** Windows Phone OS is released on Windows Phone 7 phones by

, LG, Samsung, and

. The new OS is not backward-compatible with the prior

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

OS.

2011

* February ** Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), the first version to officially support tablet computers, is released on the Motorola Xoom. **

abandons the Symbian OS and announces that it would use Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform, while Symbian would be gradually wound down. * April –

BlackBerry Tablet OS BlackBerry Tablet OS is an operating system from BlackBerry Ltd based on the QNX Neutrino real-time operating system designed to run Adobe AIR and BlackBerry WebWorks applications, currently available for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet compute ...

, based on QNX Neutrino is released on the

PlayBook. * July **

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

announces their ''Boot to Gecko'' project (later named

Firefox OS Firefox OS (project name: ''Boot to Gecko'', also known as ''B2G'') is a discontinued Open-source software, open-source operating system made for smartphones, tablet computers, smart TVs, and Matchstick TV, dongles designed by Mozilla and exte ...

) to develop an OS for handheld devices emphasizing standards-based Web technologies, similar to webOS. ** webOS 3.0, the first version to support tablet computers, is released on the HP

TouchPad A touchpad or trackpad is a type of pointing device. Its largest component is a tactile sensor: an electronic device with a flat surface, that detects the motion and position of a user's fingers, and translates them to 2D motion, to control a Cu ...

. * August – HP announces that webOS device development and production lines would be halted. The last HP webOS version, 3.0.5, is released on January 12, 2012. * September **

is introduced with the limited-release Nokia N9, Nokia's first and only consumer device to use the OS. (A small number of the Nokia N950, a MeeGo phone available only to developers, were released in mid-2011.) ** After Nokia's abandonment of MeeGo, Intel and the Linux Foundation announce a partnership with

to launch

, shifting their focus from MeeGo (Intel and Linux Foundation) and Bada (Samsung) during 2011 and 2012. * October ** Apple releases

iOS 5 iOS 5 is the iOS version history, fifth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 4. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 6, 2011, and was released ...

with the

iPhone 4S The is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, fifth generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4 and preceding the iPhone 5. It was announced on October 4, 2011, at Apple's Cupertino ...

, integrating the

Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ...

voice assistant. ** The Mer project is announced, based on an ultra-portable core for building products, composed of Linux,

HTML5 HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5) is a markup language used for structuring and presenting hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. It was the fifth and final major HTML version that is now a retired World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend ...

QML QML (Qt Meta-object Language) is a user interface markup language. It is a declarative language (similar to CSS and JSON) for designing user interface–centric applications. Inline JavaScript code handles imperative aspects. It is associate ...

, and

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

, which is derived from the MeeGo codebase. * November –

Fire OS Fire OS is an Android (operating system), Android-based operating system developed by Amazon (company), Amazon for their hardware #Devices, devices. Fire OS includes a customized Graphical user interface, user interface primarily centered on con ...

, a fork of the Android operating system, is released by

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...

on the

Kindle Fire The Amazon Fire, formerly called the Kindle Fire, is a line of tablet computers developed by Amazon. Built with Quanta Computer, the Kindle Fire was first released in November 2011, featuring a color 7-inch multi-touch display with IPS tech ...

tablet.

2012

* May – Nokia releases the

Nokia 808 PureView The Nokia 808 PureView is a Symbian-powered smartphone by Nokia. It was first unveiled on 27 February 2012 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) and released in May 2012. It is the first smartphone to feature Nokia PureView Pro technology, a pix ...

, later confirmed (in January 2013) to be the last Symbian smartphone. This phone was followed by a single last Symbian software update, "Nokia Belle, Feature Pack 2", later in 2012. * July ** Finnish start-up Jolla, formed by former Nokia employees, announces that MeeGo's community-driven successor Mer would be the basis of their new

Sailfish The sailfish is one or two species of marine fish in the genus ''Istiophorus'', which belong to the family Istiophoridae ( marlins). They are predominantly blue to gray in colour and have a characteristically large dorsal fin known as the ...

smartphone OS. **

announces that the project formerly named ''Boot to Gecko'' (which is built atop an Android Linux kernel using Android drivers and services; however it uses no Java-like code of Android) is now

(since discontinued) and has several handset OEMs on board. * August – Samsung announces they will not ship further phones using their Bada OS, instead focusing on

Windows Phone 8 Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft, released on October 29, 2012. It runs on the Windows NT kernel and is the successor to Windows Phone 7. It was the first ...

and Android. * September – Apple releases

iOS 6 iOS 6 is the sixth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc, being the successor to iOS 5. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11, 2012, and was released on September 19, 2012 ...

with the

iPhone 5 The iPhone 5 is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, 6th generation iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4s, and preceding both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. It was formally unveiled as part of ...

2013

* January –

releases their new operating system for smartphones,

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 (BB10) is a proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion). Released in January 2013, BlackBerry 10 is a complete rework from t ...

, with their Q10 and Z10 smartphones. BlackBerry 10 is not backward-compatible with the

BlackBerry OS BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Limited) for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking ...

used on their previous smartphones. * February – HP sells webOS to LG. * September – Apple releases

iOS 7 iOS 7 is the seventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 6. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, 2013, and was released on September 18 ...

with the iPhone 5S and

iPhone 5C The iPhone 5c is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the sixth generation of the iPhone. The device was unveiled on September 10, 2013, and released on September 20, 2013, along with its higher-end counte ...

. * October **

Canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean 'according to the canon' the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, ''canonical exampl ...

announces

Ubuntu Touch Ubuntu Touch is a mobile version of the Ubuntu operating system, developed by the UBports community. Its user interface is written in Qt, and is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Howev ...

, a version of the Linux distribution expressly designed for smartphones. The OS is built on the Android Linux kernel, using Android drivers and services, but does not use any of the Java-like code of Android. **

releases Android KitKat 4.4. * November – Jolla releases

Sailfish OS Sailfish OS is a paid Linux-based operating system based on free software, and open source projects such as Mer as well as including a closed source UI. The project is being developed by the Finnish company Jolla. The OS first shipped wit ...

on the Jolla smartphone.

2014

* February **

releases Windows Phone 8.1 **

introduces their Nokia X platform OS as an Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean fork on the Nokia X family of smartphones. Similar to

's Fire OS, it replaces Google's apps and services with ones from Nokia (such as HERE Maps, Nokia Xpress and MixRadio, and Nokia's own app store) and Microsoft (such as

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

and

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, also referred to as ''the classic Outlook'' an e-mail client and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook for Windows, also referred to as ''the ...

), with a user interface that mimics the Windows Phone UI. After the acquisition of Nokia's devices unit, Microsoft announced in July 2014 that no more Nokia X smartphones would be introduced, marking the end of the platform just a few months later. * August – The Samsung SM-Z9005 Z is the first phone released running Tizen, with v2.2.1 of the OS. * September ** Apple releases

iOS 8 iOS 8 is the eighth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 7. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 2, 2014, and was released on September 17 ...

with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. **

releases

version 10.3 with integration with the

Amazon Appstore Amazon Appstore is an app store for Android-compatible platforms operated by Amazon.com Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. On August 20, 2025 the Amazon Appstore will be inaccessible on third party Android devices and apps bought from the Am ...

* November – Google releases Android 5.0 "Lollipop"

2015

* February – Google releases Android 5.1 "Lollipop". * April ** LG releases the LG Watch Urbane LTE

running "LG Wearable Platform OS" based on webOS. This is a version of their Android

Wear OS Wear OS, formerly Android Wear, is a closed-source Android (operating system), Android distribution designed for smartwatches and other wearable computer, wearable computers, developed by Google. Wear OS is designed to pair with mobile phones run ...

-based LG Watch Urbane, with added

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

connectivity. **

watchOS watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc., Apple. It is based on iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone, and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the o ...

, based on iOS, is released by Apple with the

Apple Watch The Apple Watch is a brand of smartwatch products developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple. It incorporates activity tracker, fitness tracking, Health (Apple), health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates wit ...

. * September ** Apple releases

iOS 9 iOS 9 is the ninth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 8. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, 2015, and was released on September 16, ...

with the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus,

iPad Pro The iPad Pro is a series of tablet computers, positioned as the premium line of Apple Inc., Apple's iPad brand. It runs iPadOS, a tablet-optimized Fork (software development), fork of the iOS operating system. Early models were distinguished f ...

, and

iPad Mini 4 The iPad Mini 4 (stylized and marketed as iPad mini 4) is the fourth-generation iPad Mini tablet computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was announced along with the iPad Pro on September 9, 2015, and released the same day. The iPad M ...

, plus watchOS 2.

tvOS tvOS (formerly Apple TV Software) is an operating system developed by Apple for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. The software for the second-generation and later ...

9 is also made distinct from iOS, with its own App Store, launching with Apple TV 4th generation. ** Google releases Android 6.0 "Marshmallow". * October – BlackBerry announces that there are no plans to release new APIs and software development kits for BlackBerry 10, and future updates would focus on security and privacy enhancements only. * November – Microsoft releases

Windows 10 Mobile Windows 10 Mobile is the fourth and final generation of Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8.1. First released in 2015, it was marketed by Microsoft as being an Windows 10 editions, edition of its Per ...

2016

* February – Microsoft releases the Lumia 650, their last

phone before discontinuing all mobile hardware production the following year. * July – The BlackBerry Classic, the last device to date running a BlackBerry OS is discontinued. While BlackBerry Limited claimed to still be committed to the BlackBerry 10 operating system, they have since only shipped Android devices after releasing the

BlackBerry Priv The BlackBerry Priv is a slider smartphone developed by BlackBerry Limited. Following a series of leaks, it was officially announced by BlackBerry CEO John Chen on September 25, 2015, and released on November 6, 2015. The Priv was the first Bla ...

, their first Android smartphone in November 2015. * August ** Google posts the

Fuchsia ''Fuchsia'' ( ) is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees. Almost 110 species of ''Fuchsia'' are recognized; the vast majority are native to South America, but a few occur north through Central America to Mex ...

source code on GitHub. ** Google releases Android 7.0 "Nougat". * September – Apple releases

iOS 10 iOS 10 is the iOS version history, tenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 9. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 13, 2016, and was release ...

with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and watchOS 3 with the Apple Watch Series 1 and 2. * November ** Tizen releases Tizen 3.0. ** BlackBerry releases BlackBerry 10 version 10.3.3.

2017

* April ** Development of

is transferred from Canonical Ltd. to the UBports Foundation ** Samsung officially launches Android-based Samsung Experience custom firmware starting with version 8.1 on Samsung Galaxy S8. * May ** Samsung announces Tizen 4.0 at Tizen Developer Conference 2017. * August ** Google releases Android 8.0 "Oreo". * September ** Apple releases

iOS 11 iOS 11 is the iOS version history, eleventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., Apple, being the successor to iOS 10. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5, 2017, and w ...

with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and

iPhone X The iPhone X (Roman numerals, Roman numeral "X" pronounced "ten") is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the List of iPhone models, 11th generation of the iPhone. Available for pre-order from September 26, 2 ...

, and watchOS 4 with the

Apple Watch Series 3 The Apple Watch is a brand of smartwatch products developed and marketed by Apple. It incorporates fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates with watchOS and other Apple products and servi ...

. * October ** Microsoft announces that Windows 10 Mobile development is going into maintenance mode only, ending the release of any new features or functionality due to lack of market penetration and resultant lack of interest from app developers, and releases the final major update to it, the " Fall Creators Update." **

Cherry Mobile Cherry (also known as Cherry Philippines, stylized as CHERRY, formerly known as Cherry Mobile), is a Philippine mobile phone and consumer electronics brand by Cosmic Technologies, established by Maynard Ngu in 2009. The company imports mobile ph ...

release Cherry OS based on Android

2018

* February ** Samsung releases Samsung Experience 9.0 based on Android "Oreo" 8.0 globally to Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+. * March ** Google and partners officially launches Android Go (based on Android "Oreo" 8.1 but tailored for low-end devices) with Nokia 1, Alcatel 1X, ZTE Tempo Go, General Mobile 8 Go, Micromax Bharat Go and Lava Z50. ** Google releases Android "9" as a developer preview. * April ** Microsoft release

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

Version 1803 "April 2018 Update". * May ** Huawei release LiteOS version 2.1. * August ** Google releases Android 9.0 "Pie". ** UBPorts released Ubuntu Touch OTA-14, upgrading the OS based on the Canonical's long-term support version of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus". ** Xiaomi officially introduces MIUI for POCO for their Poco series smartphone. ** Samsung officially introduces Tizen 4.0 with the release of Samsung Galaxy Watch series. * September ** Apple releases

iOS 12 iOS 12 is the iOS version history, twelfth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., Apple. Aesthetically similar to its predecessor, iOS 11, it focuses more on performance than on new features, quality improvemen ...

with the iPhone XS and XS Max, and watchOS 5 with

Apple Watch Series 4 The Apple Watch is a brand of smartwatch products developed and marketed by Apple. It incorporates fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates with watchOS and other Apple products and serv ...

. ** Huawei releases EMUI 9.0. * October ** Microsoft releases

Version 1809 "October 2018 Update". * November ** Samsung announces the

One UI One UI is a user interface (UI) developed by Samsung Electronics for its smart devices, including Android (operating system), Android devices from at least late 2016 or early 2017 running Android Pie, Android 9 (Pie) and later. Succeeding Samsu ...

as the latest version of the Samsung Experience UI. ** Amazon released Fire OS 6 to supported Fire HD devices.

2019

* January ** Microsoft announces that support for Windows 10 Mobile would

end End, END, Ending, or ENDS may refer to: End Mathematics *End (category theory) * End (topology) * End (graph theory) * End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) * End (endomorphism) Sports and games *End (gridiron football) *End, a division ...

on December 10, 2019, and that Windows 10 Mobile users should migrate to iOS or Android phones. * June **Apple announces

iOS 13 iOS 13 is the thirteenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple for the iPhone, iPod Touch and HomePod. The successor to iOS 12, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June ...

6, and

iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. It was given a name distinct from iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, suc ...

as a distinct variant of iOS. * August **

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...

officially announces

HarmonyOS HarmonyOS (HMOS) ( zh, s=鸿蒙, p=Hóngméng, tr=Vast Mist) is a distributed operating system developed by Huawei for smartphones, tablet computer, tablets, smart TVs, smart watches, personal computers and other smart devices. It has a microk ...

* September ** Apple releases

with the

iPhone 11 The iPhone 11 is a smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple. It is the thirteenth generation of iPhone, succeeding the iPhone XR, and was unveiled on September 10, 2019, alongside the higher-end iPhone 11 Pro at the Steve Jobs Th ...

series, watchOS 6 with Apple Watch Series 5, and

with the 7th generation iPad. ** Google releases Android 10. ** The Librem 5, the first phone running

PureOS PureOS is a Linux distribution focusing on privacy and security, using the GNOME or KDE Plasma desktop environment. It is maintained by Purism for use in the company's Librem laptop computers as well as the Librem 5 smartphone. PureOS is ...

, is released. * October ** Samsung announces the One UI 2.0 as the latest version of their Galaxy Smartphone and Smartwatch UI . * November ** Microsoft releases the Windows 10 November 10, 2019 Update.

Current software platforms

These operating systems often run atop

baseband In telecommunications and signal processing, baseband is the range of frequencies occupied by a signal that has not been modulated to higher frequencies. Baseband signals typically originate from transducers, converting some other variable into ...

or other

s that handle hardware aspects of the phone.

Android

Android (based on the modified

) is a mobile operating system developed by Open Handset Alliance. The base system is

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

(and only the kernel

copyleft Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, ''freedoms'' refers to the use of the work for any purpose, ...

), but the apps and drivers which provide functionality are increasingly becoming

closed-source Proprietary software is software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing the software or modi ...

. Besides having the largest installed base worldwide on smartphones, it is also the most popular operating system for general purpose computers (a category that includes desktop computers and mobile devices), even though Android is not a popular operating system for regular (desktop)

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

s (PCs). Although the Android operating system is

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...

, in devices sold, much of the software bundled with it (including Google apps and vendor-installed software) is

proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...

and closed-source. Android's releases before 2.0 (1.0, 1.5, 1.6) were used exclusively on mobile phones. Android 2.x releases were mostly used for mobile phones but also some tablets. Android 3.0 was a tablet-oriented release and does not officially run on mobile phones. Both phone and tablet compatibility were merged with Android 4.0. Many OEMs ship their devices with custom skins and numerous forks of Android are available to use as custom ROMs.

Wear OS

Wear OS (also known simply as Wear and formerly Android Wear) is a version of Google's Android operating system designed for smartwatches and other

wearables A wearable computer, also known as a body-borne computer, is a computing device worn on the body. The definition of 'wearable computer' may be narrow or broad, extending to smartphones or even ordinary wristwatches. Wearables may be for general ...

. By pairing with mobile phones running Android version 6.0 or newer, or iOS version 10.0 or newer with limited support from Google's pairing application, Wear OS integrates

Google Assistant Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application developed by Google that is primarily available on home automation and mobile devices. Based on artificial intelligence, Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations, unlike ...

technology and mobile notifications into a smartwatch form factor. In May 2021 at

Google I/O Google I/O, or simply I/O, is an annual developer conference held by Google in Mountain View, California. The name "I/O" is taken from the number googol, with the "I" representing the first digit "1" in a googol and the "O" representing the s ...

, Google announced a major update to the platform, internally known as Wear OS 3.0. It incorporates a new visual design inspired by Android 12, and Fitbit exercise tracking features. Google also announced a partnership with Samsung Electronics, who is collaborating with Google to unify its Tizen-based smartwatch platform with Wear OS, and has committed to using Wear OS on its future smartwatch products starting with

Watch 3.0. The underlying codebase was also upgraded to Android 11.

ChromeOS

ChromeOS is an operating system designed by Google that is based on the Linux kernel and uses the

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

web browser as its principal user interface. As a result, ChromeOS primarily supports

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is created with web technologies and runs via a web browser. Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server to dynamically build a response to the request, ...

s. Google announced the project in July 2009, conceiving it as an operating system in which both applications and user data reside in the

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

: hence ChromeOS primarily runs

s. Due to increase of popularity with 2-in-1 PCs, most recent Chromebooks are introduced with touch screen capability, with Android applications starting to become available for the operating system in 2014. And in 2016, access to Android apps in the entire

Google Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

was introduced on supported ChromeOS devices. With the support of Android applications, there are Chromebook devices that are positioned as tablet based instead of notebooks. ChromeOS is only available pre-installed on hardware from Google manufacturing partners. An open source equivalent,

ChromiumOS ChromiumOS (formerly styled as Chromium OS) is a free and open-source Linux distribution designed for running web applications and browsing the World Wide Web. It is the open-source version of ChromeOS, a Linux distribution made by Google. Chr ...

, can be compiled from downloaded

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

. Early on, Google provided design goals for ChromeOS, but has not otherwise released a technical description.

Sailfish OS

Sailfish OS is from Jolla. It is open source with

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

(GPL) for middleware stack core which comes from MER. Sailfish due to Jolla's business model and due to alliances with various partners and due to intentional design of OS internals, is capable to adopt in several layers third-party software including Jolla software e.g. Jolla's UI is proprietary software (closed source), so such components can be proprietary with many kinds of licences. However, user can replace them with open source components like e.g. NEMO UI instead Jolla's UI. After Nokia abandoned in 2011 the MeeGo project, most of the MeeGo team left Nokia, and established Jolla as a company to use MeeGo and Mer business opportunities. The MER standard allows it to be launched on any hardware with kernel compatible with MER. In 2012, Linux Sailfish OS based on MeeGo and using middleware of MER core stack distribution was launched for public use. The first device, the Jolla smartphone, was unveiled on May 20, 2013. In 2015, Jolla Tablet was launched and the

BRICS BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten countriesBrazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The idea of a BRICS-like group can be traced back to Russian foreign ...

countries declared it an officially supported OS there. Jolla started licensing Sailfish OS 2.0 for third parties. Some devices sold are updateable to Sailfish 2.0 with no limits. Nemo Mobile is a community-driven OS, similar to Sailfish but attempting to replace its proprietary components, such as the user interface.

SteamOS

SteamOS is a

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

developed by

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...

. It incorporates Valve's popular namesake

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

video game storefront and is the primary operating system for Steam Machines and the

Steam Deck The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer produced by Valve Corporation, designed to run a portion of games available on the Steam storefront client. Built upon the experiences gained from Valve's earlier ventures with Steam Machine and th ...

. SteamOS is

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

with some closed source components. SteamOS was originally built to support streaming of video games from one

to the one running SteamOS within the same network, although the operating system can support standalone systems and was intended to be used as part of Valve's Steam Machine platform. SteamOS versions 1.0, released in December 2013, and 2.0 were based on the

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

distribution of Linux with

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

desktop. With SteamOS, Valve encouraged developers to incorporate Linux compatibility into their releases to better support Linux gaming options. In February 2022, Valve released the

handheld A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. Mod ...

gaming computer A gaming computer, also known as a gaming PC, is a specialized personal computer designed for playing PC games at high standards. They typically differ from mainstream personal computers by using high-performance graphics cards, a high core-co ...

running SteamOS 3.0. SteamOS 3 is based on the

Arch Linux Arch Linux () is an Open-source software, open source, rolling release Linux distribution. Arch Linux is kept up-to-date by regularly updating the individual pieces of software that it comprises. Arch Linux is intentionally minimal, and is meant ...

distribution with

KDE Plasma 5 KDE Plasma 5 is the fifth generation of the KDE Plasma graphical workspaces environment, created by KDE primarily for Linux systems. KDE Plasma 5 is the successor of KDE Plasma 4 and was first released on 15 July 2014. It was succeeded by KDE Pl ...

Tizen

Tizen (based on the Linux kernel) is a mobile operating system hosted by Linux Foundation, together with support from the Tizen Association, guided by a Technical Steering Group composed of Intel and Samsung. Tizen is an operating system for devices including smartphones, tablets, In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) devices, however currently it mainly focuses on wearable and smart TVs. It is an open source system (however the SDK was closed-source and proprietary) that aims to offer a consistent user experience across devices. Tizen's main components are the Linux kernel and the

WebKit WebKit is a browser engine primarily used in Apple's Safari web browser, as well as all web browsers on iOS and iPadOS. WebKit is also used by the PlayStation consoles starting with the PS3, the Tizen mobile operating systems, the Amazon K ...

runtime. According to Intel, Tizen "combines the best of LiMo and MeeGo."

apps are emphasized, with MeeGo encouraging its members to transition to Tizen, stating that the "future belongs to HTML5-based applications, outside of a relatively small percentage of apps, and we are firmly convinced that our investment needs to shift toward HTML5." Tizen will be targeted at a variety of platforms such as handsets, touch pc, smart TVs and in-vehicle entertainment. On May 17, 2013, Tizen released version 2.1, code-named Nectarine. While Tizen itself was open source, most of the UX and UI layer that was developed by Samsung was mainly closed-source and proprietary, such as the TouchWiz UI on the Samsung Z's series smartphone and One UI for their Galaxy Watch wearable lines. Note that some refrigerators use Tizen, even though they are not considered mobile devices.

KaiOS

KaiOS is from Kai. It is based on Firefox OS/Boot to Gecko. Unlike most mobile operating systems which focus on smartphones, KaiOS was developed mainly for feature phones, giving these access to more advanced technologies usually found on smartphones, such as app stores and Wi-Fi/4G capabilities. It is a mix of closed-source and open-source components. FirefoxOS/B2G was released under the permissive MPL 2.0. It does not redistribute itself under the same license, so KaiOS is now presumably proprietary (but still mostly

, publishing its source code). KaiOS is not entirely proprietary, as it uses the copyleft GPL Linux kernel also used in Android.

Smart Feature OS

Smart Feature OS is a custom version of KaiOS that was developed and solely used by

HMD Global HMD Global (Human Mobile Devices) is a Finnish independent mobile phone manufacturer. The company is made up of the mobile phone business that the Nokia, Nokia Corporation sold to Microsoft in 2014, then bought back in 2016 by former executives ...

for their KaiOS line of Nokia feature phone. The main differences between stock KaiOS and Smart Feature OS is the aesthetics such as icons, widgets, a custom Nokia ringtone and notification tone.

Fully open-source, entirely permissive licenses

Fuchsia

Fuchsia is a capability-based, real-time operating system (RTOS) currently being developed by Google. It was first discovered as a mysterious code post on GitHub in August 2016, without any official announcement. In contrast to prior Google-developed operating systems such as ChromeOS and Android, which are based on Linux kernels, Fuchsia is based on a new microkernel called "Zircon", derived from "Little Kernel", a small operating system intended for embedded systems. This allows it to remove Linux and the copyleft GPL under which the Linux kernel is licensed; Fuchsia is licensed under the

permissive Permissiveness may refer to: * Permissiveness (endocrinology), between hormones and cells. * Permissiveness (virology), between viruses and cells. Permissive may refer to: * Permissive society, a liberalization of social norms in a society. * ...

BSD 3-clause, Apache 2.0, and

MIT license The MIT License is a permissive software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts very few restrictions on reuse and therefore has high license compatibility. Unl ...

s. Upon inspection, media outlets noted that the code post on GitHub suggested Fuchsia's capability to run on universal devices, from embedded systems to smartphones, tablets and personal computers. In May 2017, Fuchsia was updated with a user interface, along with a developer writing that the project was not a for experimental, prompting media speculation about Google's intentions with the operating system, including the possibility of it replacing Android.

LiteOS

LiteOS is a discontinued lightweight open source real-time operating system which is part of Huawei's "1+2+1" Internet of Things solution, which is similar to Google Android Things and Samsung Tizen. It was released under the

BSD 3-clause license. LiteOS was used in the Huawei Watch GT series and their sub-brand Honor Magic Watch series.

OpenHarmony

OpenHarmony OpenHarmony (OHOS, OH) is a family of open-source distributed operating systems based on HarmonyOS derived from LiteOS, donated the L0-L2 branch source code by Huawei to the OpenAtom Foundation. Similar to HarmonyOS, the open-source distrib ...

is an open-source version of HarmonyOS developed and donated by Huawei to the OpenAtom Foundation. It supports devices running a mini system with memory as small as 128 KB, or running a standard system with memory greater than 128 MB. The open source

is based on the Huawei LiteOS kernel and

for standard systems. OpenHarmony LiteOS Cortex-A brings small-sized, low-power, and high-performance experience and builds a unified and open ecosystem for developers. In addition, it provides rich kernel mechanisms, more comprehensive Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), and a unified driver framework, Hardware Driver Foundation (HDF), which offers unified access for device developers and friendly development experience for application developers.

Fully open-source, mixed copyleft and permissive licenses

Fedora Mobility

Fedora Mobility is under developing mobile operating system by the Fedora Project that are porting Fedora to run on portable devices such as phones and tablets.

LuneOS

LuneOS is a modern reimplementation of the Palm/HP webOS interface.

Manjaro ARM

Manjaro ARM is a mobile operating system with Plasma Mobile desktop environment that is running and default operating system on the PinePhone, an ARM-based smartphone released by Pine64.

Mobian

A mobile

focused for

PinePhone The PinePhone is a smartphone developed by Hong Kong–based computer manufacturer Pine64, designed to provide users with full control over the device. This is achieved through the utilization of mainline Linux-based mobile operating systems, ass ...

and soon

Librem Librem is a line of computers manufactured by Purism, SPC featuring free (libre) software. The laptop line is designed to protect privacy and freedom by providing no non-free (proprietary) software in the operating system or kernel, avoiding t ...

Plasma mobile

Plasma Mobile is a Plasma variant for smartphones. Plasma Mobile runs on Wayland and it is compatible with Ubuntu Touch applications,

applications, and eventually Android applications via KDE's

Shashlik Shashlik, or shashlyck ( ''shashlyk''), is a Dish (food), dish of skewered and grilled cubes of meat, similar to or synonymous with shish kebab. It is known traditionally by various other names in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, an ...

project also sponsored by Blue Systems, or

Anbox Anbox (short for “Android (operating system), Android in a Box”) is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source compatibility layer that allows Android mobile application, applications to run on Linux distributions by using containe ...

. It is under the copyleft

GPLv2 The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or copyleft, ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was th ...

license. The Necuno phone uses Plasma Mobile. It is entirely open-source and thus does not have a cellular modem, so it must make calls by

VOIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

, like a pocket computer.

postmarketOS

postmarketOS is based on the

Alpine Linux Alpine Linux is a Linux distribution designed to be small, simple, and secure. It uses musl, BusyBox, and OpenRC instead of the more commonly used glibc, GNU Core Utilities, and systemd.

Linux distribution. It is intended to run on older phone hardware. it is in

alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

PureOS

PureOS is a Debian GNU/Linux derivative using only

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

meeting the

Debian Free Software Guidelines ''The Open Source Definition'' (OSD) is a policy document published by the Open Source Initiative. Derived from the Debian Free Software Guidelines written by Bruce Perens, the definition is the most common standard for open-source software. ...

, mainly the

GPL. PureOS is endorsed by

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...

as one of the freedom-respecting operating systems. It is developed by

Purism Purism, referring to the arts, was a movement that took place between 1918 and 1925 that influenced French painting and architecture. Purism was led by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier). Ozenfant and Le Corbusier f ...

, and was already in use on Purism's laptops before it was used on the Librem 5 smartphone. Purism, in partnership with

and

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that enable collaborative work on its projects. Its products include the KDE Plasma gra ...

, aims to separate the

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, log ...

from the

baseband processor A baseband processor (also known as baseband radio processor, BP, or BBP) is a device (a chip or part of a chip) in a network interface controller that manages all the radio functions (all functions that require an antenna); however, this term ...

and include hardware

kill switch A kill switch, also known more formally as an emergency brake, emergency stop (E-stop), emergency off (EMO), or emergency power off (EPO), is a safety mechanism used to shut off machinery in an emergency, when it cannot be shut down in the usu ...

es for the phone's

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

, camera, microphone, and baseband processor, and provide both GNOME and

KDE Plasma Mobile Plasma Mobile is a KDE Plasma, Plasma variant for smartphones. It is currently available for the PinePhone, and supported devices for postmarketOS such as the OnePlus 6. It is shipped by several Linux distributions, such as postmarketOS and Manj ...

as options for the desktop environment.

Ubuntu Touch

Ubuntu Touch is an open-source ( GPL) mobile version of the

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

operating system originally developed in 2013 by Canonical Ltd. and continued by the non-profit UBports Foundation in 2017. Ubuntu Touch can run on a pure GNU/Linux base on phones with the required drivers, such as the Librem 5 and the

. To enable hardware that was originally shipped with Android, Ubuntu Touch makes use of the Android Linux kernel, using Android drivers and services via an

LXC Linux Containers (LXC) is an operating system-level virtualization method for running multiple isolated Linux systems (containers) on a control host using a single Linux kernel. The Linux kernel provides the cgroups functionality that allows l ...

container, but does not use any of the Java-like code of Android. As of February 2022, Ubuntu Touch is available on 78 phones and tablets. The UBports Installer serves as an easy-to-use tool to allow inexperienced users to install the operating system on third-party devices without damaging their hardware.

Closed source

iOS

iOS (formerly named iPhone OS) was created by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

It has the second largest installed base worldwide on smartphones, but the largest profits, due to aggressive price competition between Android-based manufacturers. It is closed-source and proprietary, and is built on the open source Darwin operating system. The iPhone,

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

, and second and third-generation

Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...

all use iOS, which is derived from

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

. Native third-party applications were not officially supported until the release of iPhone OS 2.0 on July 11, 2008. Before this, " jailbreaking" allowed third-party applications to be installed. In recent years, the jailbreaking scene has changed drastically due to Apple's continued efforts to secure their operating system and prevent unauthorized modifications. Currently, jailbreaks of recent iterations of iOS are only semi-untethered, which requires a device to be re-jailbroken at every boot, and exploits for jailbreaks are becoming increasingly hard to find and use. Currently all iOS devices are developed by Apple and manufactured by

Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (), Trade name, doing business as Hon Hai Technology Group () in Taiwan, Foxconn Technology Group () in China, and Foxconn () internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational electron ...

or another of Apple's partners.

iPadOS

iPadOS is a tablet operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. specifically for their iPad line of tablet computers. It was announced at the company's 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), as a derivation from iOS but with a greater emphasis put on multitasking. It was released on September 24, 2019.

watchOS

watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc. It is based on the iOS operating system and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the only device that runs watchOS. It is currently the most widely used wearable operating system. It features focus on convenience, such as being able to place phone calls and send texts, and health, such as fitness and heart rate tracking.

Kindle firmware

Kindle firmware is a mobile operating system specifically designed for

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, Audible audiobooks, and other digital media via wireless networking ...

e-reader An e-reader, also called an e reader or e device, is a Mobile computing, mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and Periodical literature, periodicals. Any device that can display text on ...

s. It is based on a custom Linux kernel, but it is mostly closed-source and proprietary.

HarmonyOS

HarmonyOS is a distributed operating system developed by Huawei that was specifically designed for smartphones, tablets, TVs, smartwatches, smart devices made by Huawei. It is based on a proprietary multi-kernel and Linux kernel subsystem. Released officially for smartphones on June 2, 2021, from its initial launch on August 9, 2019, for smart screen TVs. On August 4, 2023, Huawei announces its full stack

HarmonyOS NEXT HarmonyOS NEXT ( zh, s=鸿蒙星河版, p=Hóngméng Xīnghébǎn) is a proprietary software, proprietary distributed operating system that succeeded the similarly named HarmonyOS, with the main difference that the "Next" operating system was de ...

for HarmonyOS that will replace the current multi-kernel stack that contains Linux kernel subsystem with APK apps, with only native HarmonyOS apps able to be used. On January 18, 2024, Galaxy Edition version was announced to be used for the next version of HarmonyOS.

Nintendo Switch system software

The Nintendo Switch system software (also known by its codename Horizon) is an updatable firmware and operating system used by the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

hybrid video game console/tablet and Nintendo Switch Lite handheld game console. It is based on a proprietary microkernel. The UI includes a HOME screen, consisting of the top bar, the screenshot viewer ("Album"), and shortcuts to the Nintendo eShop, News, and Settings. The system itself is based on the Nintendo 3DS system software, additionally the networking stack in the Switch OS is derived at least in part from

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...

code while the Stagefright multimedia framework is derived from Android code.

PlayStation Vita system software

The PlayStation Vita system software is the official firmware and operating system for the

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, then in other international territories on February 22, 2012, and was produced ...

and

PlayStation TV The PlayStation TV (abbreviated to PS TV), known in Japan and other parts of Asia as the PlayStation Vita TV or PS Vita TV, is a microconsole, and a non-handheld variant of the PlayStation Vita handheld game console. It was released in Japan on ...

video game consoles. It uses the LiveArea as its graphical shell. The PlayStation Vita system software has one optional add-on component, the PlayStation Mobile Runtime Package. The system is built on a Unix-base which is derived from FreeBSD and NetBSD.

Microsoft Windows

Windows is a personal computer operating system developed and released by Microsoft as part of the

Windows NT Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of operating systems. It was released on November 20, 1985 but began focusing on tablet with the release of Windows 8 on October 12, 2012 after earlier attempts with editions based on Windows XP. It was designed to run across multiple Microsoft product such as PCs and tablets. The Windows user interface was revamped with Windows 8 to provide an improved tablet experience over the interface of Windows 7, including the introduction of modern Windows apps. Windows 10 would later combine the interface to provide a better experience for mouse-oriented devices and a touchscreen devices. Windows 10 also introduced the Universap Windows Platform, these apps can be designed to run across multiple Microsoft product families with nearly identical code‍ including PCs, tablets, smartphones, embedded systems, Xbox One, Surface Hub and Mixed Reality.

Minor proprietary operating systems

Other than the major operating systems, some companies such as Huami (Amazfit), Huawei, realme, TCL, and Xiaomi have developed their own proprietary RTOSes specifically for their own smartbands and smartwatches that are designed for power effiency and lower battery consumption and are not based on any other operating system. *Proprietary Amazfit OS Operating System that is primarily designed for their Bip series, however, Huami is currently developing the operating system to run on other smartwatches as well. *Huawei/Honor Band Operating System Huawei Band Operating system is an operating system specifically designed and developed by Huawei for their fitness trackers, including smartbands from

Honor Honour ( Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as val ...

*Lenovo RTOS Proprietary OS developed by Lenovo for their fitness trackers and smartwatches. *realme Wearable Operating System A proprietary operating system design to run on realme smartbands and smartwatches. *TCL Wearable Real Time Operating System A proprietary RTOS powering TCL and Alcatel branded smartbands and smartwatches. *Xiaomi Mi Band Operating System Proprietary RTOS that is developed by Huami for the Xiaomi Mi Band series.

Discontinued software platforms

Open source

CyanogenMod

CyanogenMod was a custom mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). It was a custom ROM that was co-developed by the CyanogenMod community. The OS did not include any proprietary apps unless the user installed them. Due to its open source nature, CyanogenMod allowed Android users who could no longer obtain update support from their manufacturer to continue updating their OS version to the latest one based on official releases from Google AOSP and heavy theme customization. The last version of the OS was CyanogenMod 13 which was based on Android Asus. On December 24, 2016, CyanogenMod announced on their blog that they would no longer be releasing any CyanogenMod updates. All development moved to LineageOS.

=Cyanogen OS

= Cyanogen OS was based on

CyanogenMod CyanogenMod ( ; CM) is a discontinued open-source operating system for mobile devices, based on the Android mobile platform. Developed between 2009 and 2016, it was free and open-source software based on the official releases of Android by Goog ...

and maintained by Cyanogen Inc; however, it included proprietary apps and it was only available for commercial uses.

Firefox OS

Firefox OS (formerly known as "Boot to Gecko" and shortly "B2G") is from Mozilla. It was an open source mobile operating system released under the

Mozilla Public License The Mozilla Public License (MPL) is a free and open-source weak copyleft license for most Mozilla Foundation software such as Firefox and Thunderbird. The MPL is developed and maintained by Mozilla, which seeks to balance the concerns of bo ...

built on the Android Linux kernel and used Android drivers, but did not use any Java-like code of Android. According to

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

, "Mozilla says that B2G is motivated by a desire to demonstrate that the standards-based open Web has the potential to be a competitive alternative to the existing single-vendor application development stacks offered by the dominant mobile operating systems." In September 2016, Mozilla announced that work on Firefox OS has ceased, and all B2G-related code would be removed from mozilla-central.

MeeGo/Maemo/Moblin

was from non-profit organization

The Linux Foundation ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

. It is open source and GPL. At the 2010

Mobile World Congress MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry. The event is held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, at the Fira de Barcelona Gran ...

in Barcelona, Nokia and Intel both unveiled ''MeeGo'', a mobile operating system that combined Moblin and Maemo to create an open-sourced experience for users across all devices. In 2011 Nokia announced that it would no longer pursue MeeGo in favor of Windows Phone. Nokia announced the Nokia N9 on June 21, 2011, at the Nokia Connection event in Singapore. LG announced its support for the platform. Maemo was a platform developed by Nokia for smartphones and

Internet tablet A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computer ...

s. It is open source and GPL, based on Debian GNU/Linux and draws much of its

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

(GUI), frameworks, and

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

from the GNOME project. It uses the

Matchbox A matchbox is a container or case for matches, made of paperboard, cardboard, thin wood, or metal, generally in the form of a box with a separate drawer sliding inside the cover. Matchboxes generally measure 5 x 3.5 x 1.5 cm, and commonly have ...

window manager and the

GTK GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free software cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both Free software, free and ...

-based

Hildon Hildon is an application framework originally developed for mobile devices ( PDAs, mobile phones, etc.) running the Linux operating system as well as the Symbian operating system. The Symbian variant of Hildon was discontinued with the cancell ...

as its GUI and

application framework In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of application software. Application frameworks became popular with the rise of graphical user inte ...

webOS

webOS was developed by Palm. webOS is an open source mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel, initially developed by Palm, which launched with the

. After being acquired by HP, two phones (the

Veer The Veer is an option running play often associated with option offenses in American football, made famous at the College football, collegiate level by Bill Yeoman's Houston Cougars football, Houston Cougars. It is currently run primarily at Hi ...

and the Pre 3) and a tablet (the

) running webOS were introduced in 2011. On August 18, 2011, HP announced that webOS hardware would be discontinued, but would continue to support and update webOS software and develop the webOS ecosystem. HP released webOS as open source under the name Open webOS, and plans to update it with additional features. On February 25, 2013, HP announced the sale of webOS to LG Electronics, who used the operating system for its "smart" or Internet-connected TVs. However, HP retained patents underlying WebOS and cloud-based services such as the App Catalog.

Closed source

Bada

Bada platform (stylized as bada; Korean: 바다) was an operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. It was developed by Samsung Electronics. Its name is derived from "바다 (bada)", meaning "ocean" or "sea" in Korean. It ranges from mid- to high-end smartphones. To foster adoption of Bada OS, since 2011 Samsung reportedly has considered releasing the source code under an open-source license, and expanding device support to include Smart TVs. Samsung announced in June 2012 intentions to merge Bada into the Tizen project, but would meanwhile use its own Bada operating system, in parallel with Google Android OS and Microsoft Windows Phone, for its smartphones. All Bada-powered devices are branded under the Wave name, but not all of Samsung's Android-powered devices are branded under the name Galaxy. On February 25, 2013, Samsung announced that it will stop developing Bada, moving development to Tizen instead. Bug reporting was finally terminated in April 2014.

BlackBerry OS

In 1999,

Research In Motion BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartpho ...

released its first BlackBerry devices, providing secure real-time push-email communications on wireless devices. Services such as BlackBerry Messenger provide the integration of all communications into a single inbox. In September 2012, RIM announced that the 200 millionth BlackBerry smartphone was shipped. As of September 2014, there were around 46 million active BlackBerry service subscribers. In the early 2010s, RIM underwent a platform transition, changing its company name to BlackBerry Limited and making new devices using a new operating system named "BlackBerry 10".

BlackBerry 10

BlackBerry 10 (based on the QNX OS) is from BlackBerry. As a smartphone OS, it is closed-source and proprietary, and only runs on phones and tablets manufactured by BlackBerry. One of the dominant platforms in the world in the late 2000s, its global market share was reduced significantly by the mid-2010s. In late 2016, BlackBerry announced that it will continue to support the OS, with a promise to release 10.3.3. Therefore, BlackBerry 10 would not receive any major updates as BlackBerry and its partners would focus more on their Android base development.

Nintendo 3DS system software

The Nintendo 3DS system software is the updatable operating system used by the Nintendo 3DS.

Symbian

Symbian platform was developed by Nokia for some models of smartphones. It is proprietary software, it was however used by Ericsson (Sony Ericsson), Sending and Benq. The operating system was discontinued in 2012, although a slimmed-down version for basic phones was still developed until July 2014. Microsoft officially shelved the platform in favor of Windows Phone after its acquisition of Nokia.

Palm OS

Palm OS/Garnet OS was from Access Co. It is closed-source and proprietary. webOS was introduced by Palm in January 2009, as the successor to Palm OS with Web 2.0 technologies,

open architecture Open architecture is a type of computer architecture or software architecture intended to make adding, upgrading, and swapping components with other computers easy. For example, the IBM PC, Amiga 2000 and Apple IIe have an open architecture supp ...

and multitasking abilities.

Microsoft

=Windows Mobile

= Windows Mobile was a family of proprietary operating systems from Microsoft aimed at business and enterprise users, based on Windows CE and originally developed for

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile operating system, which is based on Windows Embedded Compact, Windows CE/Windows Embedded Compact, and that has some of the abilities of modern ...

(PDA) devices. In 2010 it was replaced with the consumer-focused Windows Phone. Versions of Windows Mobile came in multiple editions, like "Pocket PC Premium", "Pocket PC Professional", "Pocket PC Phone", and "Smartphone" (

Windows Mobile 2003 Windows Mobile 2003, originally codenamed "Ozone", is a member of the Windows Mobile family of mobile operating system, mobile operating systems, released on June 23, 2003, succeeding Pocket PC 2002 and Smartphone 2002. It was the first Microsoft ...

) or "Professional", "Standard", and "Classic" ( Windows Mobile 6.0). Some editions were touchscreen-only and some were keyboard-only, although there were cases where device vendors managed to graft support for one onto an edition targeted at the other. Cellular phone features were also only supported by some editions. Microsoft started work on a version of Windows Mobile that would combine all features together, but it was aborted, and instead they focused on developing the non-backward-compatible, touchscreen-only Windows Phone 7.

=Windows Phone

= Windows Phone is a proprietary mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and

Zune Zune was a brand of digital media products and services that was marketed by Microsoft from November 2006 until it was discontinued in June 2012. Zune consisted of a line of portable media players, a music subscription service known as Zune Music ...

. Windows Phone features a new touchscreen-oriented user interface derived from Metro design language. Unveiled on February 15, 2010, Windows Phone included a user interface inspired by Microsoft's

Metro Design Language Microsoft Design Language (or MDL), previously known as Metro, is a design language created by Microsoft. This design language is focused on typography and simplified icons, absence of clutter, increased content to chrome ratio ("content bef ...

. It was integrated with Microsoft services such as

OneDrive Microsoft OneDrive is a file-hosting service operated by Microsoft. First released as SkyDrive in August 2007, it allows registered users to store, share, back-up and synchronize their files. OneDrive also works as the storage Frontend and backe ...

and Office,

Xbox Music Groove Music (formerly Xbox Music and Zune Marketplace) is a discontinued Audio player (software), audio player software application included with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11. The app is also associated with a now-disco ...

, Xbox Video,

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

games, and

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

, but also integrated with many other non-Microsoft services such as

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and Google accounts. Windows Phone devices were made primarily by

Microsoft Mobile Microsoft Mobile Osakeyhtiö, Oy was a Finnish subsidiary of Microsoft engineering groups#Windows + Devices, Microsoft Devices involved in the development and manufacturing of mobile phones. Based in Keilaniemi, Espoo, it was established in 2014 ...

/Nokia, and also by HTC and Samsung. On January 21, 2015, Microsoft announced that the Windows Phone brand would be phased out and replaced with Windows 10 Mobile, bringing tighter integration and unification with its PC counterpart Windows 10, and providing a platform for smartphones and tablets with screen sizes under 8 inches. On October 8, 2017, Microsoft officially announced that they would no longer push any major updates to Windows 10 Mobile. The operating system was put in maintenance mode, where Microsoft would push bug fixes and general improvements only. Windows 10 Mobile would not receive any new feature updates. On January 18, 2019, Microsoft announced that support for Windows 10 Mobile would

on December 10, 2019, with no further security updates released after then, and that Windows 10 Mobile users should migrate to iOS or Android phones.

Market share

Usage

In 2006, Android and iOS did not exist and only 64 million smartphones were sold. In 2018 Q1, 183.5 million smartphones were sold and global market share was 48.9% for Android and 19.1% for iOS. Only 131,000 smartphones running other operating systems were sold, constituting 0.03% of sales. According to

StatCounter StatCounter is a web traffic analysis website started in 1999. Access to basic services is free to use and advanced services can cost between and US$119 a month. StatCounter is based in Dublin, Ireland. The statistics from StatCounter are used ...

web use statistics (a proxy for all use), smartphones (alone without tablets) have majority use globally, with desktop computers used much less (and Android, in particular, more popular than Windows). Use varies however by continent with smartphones way more popular in the biggest continents, i.e. Asia, and the desktop still more popular in some, though not in North America. The desktop is still popular in many countries (while overall down to 44.9% in the first quarter of 2017), smartphones are more popular even in many developed countries (or about to be in more). A few countries on any continent are desktop-minority; European countries (and some in South America, and a few, e.g. Haiti, in North America; and most in Asia and Africa) are smartphone-majority, Poland and Turkey highest with 57.68% and 62.33%, respectively. In Ireland, smartphone use at 45.55% outnumbers desktop use and mobile as a whole gains majority when including the tablet share at 9.12%. Spain is also slightly desktop-minority. The range of measured mobile web use varies a lot by country, and a StatCounter press release recognizes "India among world leaders in use of mobile to surf the internet" (of the big countries) where the share is around (or over) 80% and desktop is at 19.56%, with Russia trailing with 17.8% mobile use (and desktop the rest). Smartphones (alone, without tablets), first gained majority in December 2016 (desktop-majority was lost the month before), and it was not a Christmas-time fluke, as while close to majority after smartphone majority happened again in March 2017. In the week from November 7–13, 2016, smartphones alone (without tablets) overtook desktop, for the first time (for a short period; non-full-month). Mobile-majority applies to countries such as Paraguay in South America, Poland in Europe and Turkey; and most of Asia and Africa. Some of the world is still desktop-majority, with e.g. in the United States at 54.89% (but no not on all days). However, in some

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, desktop is way under majority, with Windows under 30% overtaken by Android. On October 22, 2016 (and subsequent weekends), mobile showed majority. Since October 27, the desktop has not shown majority, not even on weekdays. Smartphones alone have shown majority since December 23 to the end of the year, with the share topping at 58.22% on Christmas Day. To the "mobile"-majority share then of smartphones, tablets could be added giving a 63.22% majority. While an unusually high top, a similarly high also happened on Monday April 17, 2017, with then only smartphones share slightly lower and tablet share slightly higher, with them combined at 62.88%. , the world has turned desktop-minority; at about 49% desktop use for the previous month, but mobile was not ranked higher, tablet share had to be added to it to exceed desktop share. By now, mobile (smartphones) have full majority, outnumbering desktop/laptop computers by a safe margin (and no longer counting tablets with desktops makes them most popular).

By operating system

Notes: # Windows includes all versions. # BlackBerry includes all versions. # Other includes all other smartphone OSes but not feature phone OSes.

References

External links

Android

Apple

{{Authority control Mobile phones Operating systems Software wars

Timeline

Pre-1990

1993–1999

2000s

2010s

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Current software platforms

Android

Wear OS

ChromeOS

Sailfish OS

SteamOS

Tizen

KaiOS

Smart Feature OS

Fully open-source, entirely permissive licenses

Fuchsia

LiteOS

OpenHarmony

Fully open-source, mixed copyleft and permissive licenses

Fedora Mobility

LuneOS

Manjaro ARM

Mobian

Plasma mobile

postmarketOS

PureOS

Ubuntu Touch

Closed source

iOS

iPadOS

watchOS

Kindle firmware

HarmonyOS

Nintendo Switch system software

PlayStation Vita system software

Microsoft Windows

Minor proprietary operating systems

Discontinued software platforms

Open source

CyanogenMod

=Cyanogen OS

Firefox OS

MeeGo/Maemo/Moblin

webOS

Closed source

Bada

BlackBerry OS

BlackBerry 10

Nintendo 3DS system software

Symbian

Palm OS

Microsoft

=Windows Mobile

=Windows Phone

Market share

Usage

By operating system

See also

References

External links