A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on them are usually not considered mobile, as they were originally designed for desktop computers 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 factors blurring this line are the introduction of tablet computers, light laptops, and the hybridization of the 2-in-1 PCs. Mobile operating systems combine features of a desktop computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use, and usually including a wireless built-in modem and SIM tray for telephone and data connection. In 2024, approximately 1.22 billion smartphones were sold globally, marking a 7% increase over the previous year and a solid rebound after two consecutive years of declines. 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, and smartphone use (even without tablets) outnumbers desktop use. Mobile devices, with mobile communications abilities (for example, smartphones), 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).
Timeline
Mobile operating system milestones mirror the development of mobile phones, PDAs, and smartphones:
Pre-1990 1990–2010 – Mobile phones use embedded systems to control operation.
1993–1999 1993 April – PenPoint OS by GO Corp. become available on the AT&T EO Personal Communicator. August – Apple launches Newton OS running on their Newton series of portable computers. 1994 March – Magic Cap OS by General Magic is first introduced on the Sony Magic Link PDA. August – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, has a touchscreen, email, and PDA features. 1996 March – The Palm Pilot 1000 personal digital assistant is introduced with the Palm OS mobile operating system. August – Nokia releases the Nokia 9000 Communicator running an integrated system based on the PEN/GEOS 3.0 OS from Geoworks. 1997 – EPOC32 first appears on the Psion Series 5 PDA. Release 6 of EPOC32 will later be renamed to Symbian OS. 1998 – Symbian Ltd. is formed as a joint venture by Psion, Ericsson, Motorola, 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's pdQ becomes the first smartphone with Palm OS. October – Nokia S40 Platform is officially introduced along with the Nokia 7110, the first phone with T9 predictive text input and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) browser for accessing specially formatted Internet data.
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