Windows Phone, Tizen, Sailfish, FirefoxOS, PrivatOS…
Android and iOS are the two operating systems installed on the vast majority of the 1 billion smartphones in use worldwide today.
Apart from Windows Phone , which is attempting to capture a satisfactory share of the market with the power of Microsoft (and the 7.4 billion investment in the corresponding Nokia division), there are a number of other ventures, but with different motivations or even arguments.
- One of the projects is that of the Mozilla Foundation, with FirefoxOS. In this case, the argument is that the open technologies of the World Wide Web can be utilized in smartphones, and in this way, affordable smartphones can be manufactured and made available by mobile networks.
- Another is Tizen OS, with many recognized names within the Tizen Association, such as Samsung or Intel. Behind this venture is mainly Samsung (the presence of Intel is also noteworthy), which has recognized that it does not gain as much as it could from the distribution of most Androids in the world.
- Another attempt is being made just outside Helsinki, by former Nokia engineers with Jolla and Sailfish OS. Here, we find a gathering of people who believed that this should not be the fate of MeeGo and that mobile networks would show particular interest in continuing the project that began within Nokia, but had an inglorious end after the acquisition of the division by Microsoft.
- Another attempt by Canonical will remain on paper, after Canonical's appeal for online crowdfunding for Ubuntu Edge, a new budget smartphone with a "Linux distribution for human beings," fell short. Canonical estimated that the construction of Ubuntu Edge would require a whopping $32 million.
- Meanwhile, China's Operating System is also being developed to compete with Android and iOS. Users of the "China Operating System" or COS will enjoy a high level of security and the operating system will be fully tailored to their needs, in terms of language, interface and stability of cloud services.
- The Spark is not a cheap tablet from a fly‑by‑night company trying to cash in on the tablet craze. It is indeed a 200‑euro tablet that was built on a… Linux stack on unlocked hardware and on the innovative, open interface method using Plasma Active, where everything revolves around Activities. This is written in his blog post by the project lead Aaron Seigo, a well‑known developer member (until recently) of the KDE desktop environment development team.
An interesting effort that we have not written about in detail is expected to be presented in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress 2014. It is PrivatOS , an operating system that will dress the Blackphone, an operating system that promises that our privacy precedes any other activity on this modern means of communication. This promise does not come from the lips of anyone who would like to win impressions in the era of NSA scandals. The head of the newly formed Silent Circle is Phil Zimmerman, the man who in 1991 made the strong encryption PGP (Pretty Good Privacy ) available to computer users . The same team includes Javier Agüera and Rodrigo Silva-Ramos , co-founders of Geeksphone, Jon Callas, co-founder of PGP Inc. and CTO of Silent Circle, Geeksphone and Mike Janke, CEO of Silent Circle and former US Navy SEAL.
- The first Blackphone will be available for pre-order from February 24, 2014. Those interested should register at https://www.blackphone.ch
See the vision of the “black phone” team:
