It's a well known fact that the multitude of mobile operating systems has made it difficult for the mobile content industry as well as carriers who need to configure the phones they sell. Recently, however, more carriers worldwide have been speaking out about the problem: "We need to reduce the number of operating systems on phones. I'm not saying bring it down to one, but several. With fewer operating systems, it will be easier for content delivery," Vodafone's CEO Arun Sarin said last month. Vodafone declared late last year that it would eventually only support Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60 and Linux. NTT DoCoMo has also called for less OSs and is focusing on Symbian and Linux, but the carrier recently teamed up with Intel for a multi-OS handset.
Metrics from 2006 reveal that Symbian ran two-thirds of smartphones sold, Windows Mobile powered 14 percent, RIM ran 7 percent and Linux powered 6 percent.
For more on the trend:
- see this report from the NYTimes