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OS (Operating System) - definition

The Operating System is a base infrastructure software component of a computerized system. It controls all basic operations of the computer (or other electronic devices such as PDA, smartphone, etc.). The Operating System allows the user to install and execute third-party applications (commonly called apps for short), usually adding new functionality to the device.

Among the most popular computer operating systems are Microsoft's Windows and Apple's MacOS, along with the various distributions of Linux.

The most popular OS's for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) are Apple's iOS and Google's Android and they are the only ones that still show growth. Down the ranks there are RIM's BlackBerry OS and Microsoft's Windows Mobile. Symbian holds a distant fifth place, while it wasn't that long ago it was still the most widely used mobile OS.

Android & iOS dominate market share

Symbian held its top position for years but its market share has been slowly fading away ever since touch-operated smartphones became the norm and Symbian failed to deliver an intuitive touch UI. Almost ten years ago, Microsoft's Windows Mobile was a strong player too, offering the first touchscreen smartphone experience with the PocketPCs powered by their OS.

More recent Blackberry phones use the Android OS with added Blackberry security features.

On October 8th 2017, Microsoft stated that whilst they will support the Windows Mobile platform, they will cease development on any new features.

Today mobile devices with a proper OS are called smartphones and users have a wide choice of applications, such as games, productivity apps, communication or social media apps, digital maps, etc.

Standardized operating system platforms make it possible to provide a consistent user interface (and experience) across devices from different hardware manufacturers. Yet, Android smartphone manufacturers like to customize the user experience so each offers a slightly modified version of the stock Android UI.

While the major players these days are clear, over the years we've seen the emergence of numerous mobile OS projects including but not limited to Palm's webOS, Samsung's Bada OS, Nokia's Maemo OS, Nokia's MeeGo OS, LiMo OS, Tizen, BlackBerry's Playbook OS and more recently, the Jolla's Sailfish OS and Mozilla's Firefox OS.

Related terms:

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2G 3.5mm headphone jack 3G 4G 5G A-GPS (Assisted GPS) A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) Accelerometer Airplane mode Alarm Clock Alphanumeric AMOLED display (Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) Analog Android ANT+ Antenna Aperture APN (Access Point Name) Apple AirPlay Apple AirPlay 2 Apple iOS Apple iOS 10 Apple iOS 11 Apple iOS 12 Apple iOS 7 Apple iOS 8 Apple iOS 9 Apple Pay aptX Audio jack Auto-focus AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control

B

Bada OS Band Bandwidth Bar Base Station Battery Charging BeiDou Navigation Satellite System Benchmarking Biometrics Bit BlackBerry OS BlackBerry Playbook OS Bluetooth bps (Bits per Second) Brand Broadband Browser Calculator Calendar Call alerts Calling Plan Camera Capacitive Touchscreen Car Kit Carrier CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) CDMA2000 Cell Chipset cHTML (Compact HyperText Markup Language) CIF (Common Intermediate Format) Clamshell CMOS (Complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor) Color depth Concatenated SMS Connected GPS Construction Corning Gorilla Glass CPU (Central Processing Unit) Crosstalk CSTN (Color Super Twisted Nematic) CTIA Custom ringtones Cya

D

D-Pad (Direction Pad) Data Disclaimer DC-HSDPA (Dual Carrier or Dual Cell High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) Digital Zoom Display type DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) DNSe (Digital Natural Sound engine) Downlink DRM (Digital Rights Management) Dual-band Dual-Mode Dual-SIM DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) Dynami

E

EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) EGPRS EGSM (Extended GSM) Email client Emoji EMS (Enhanced Message Service) eSIM EV-DO EV-DV Exchangeable covers External Antenna Jack External

F

FCC (Federal Communications Commission) Feature Phone Femtocell Firefox OS Firmware Fixed-focus Flash Memory Flight mode Flip-down phone FM Radio FM Transmitter Form factor FOTA (Firmware Over-The-Air) FPS (Frames Per Second) Frame Error Rate Frequency FTP (File Transfer P

G

Galileo (Global Navigation Satellite System) GB (Gigabyte) Gbps (Gigabits per second) Geo-tag GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) GNSS Positioning GPRS GPS (Global Positioning System) gpsONE gpsOneXTRA Assistance technology GPU (Graphics Processi

H

H.263 H.264 H.265 Half-QWERTY keyboard layout Handwriting recognition Haptics HEVC Hot Spot Hot Swap HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit Switched Data) HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) HSDPA+ (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access Plus) HSP (Headset Profile) HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) Hz

I

iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) Image Signal Processor (ISP) IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) IP (Internet Protocol) IP Ratings IrDA (Infrared Data Asso

J

KB (Kilobyte) Kbps (Kilobits per second) Key Guard Key Loc

L

Land line LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) LED (Light-Emitting Diode) Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) Li-Polymer (Lithium Polymer) LiMo OS Linux Location-Based Services (LBS) Lock code Long SMS Long Term Evolution (LTE) Lou

M

Macro Maemo OS Magnetometer mAh Mass Storage mode MB (Megabyte) Mbps (Megabit per second) MeeGo OS Megapixel Memory card slot Memory effect Messaging MHz (Megahertz) Micro USB microSD microSDHC Microsoft Exchange (Server) MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) Mil-Spec (MIL-STD) MIMO Mini-USB miniSD MMC MMCmobile MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) Mobile games Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) Mobile IM (Instant Messaging) Mobile WiMAX Mobility DisplayPort (MyDP) Models Modem Monochrome MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) MPEG-4 video Multitouch input method Music playback time (battery life) Musi

N

NAND Memory Network capacity Network coverage NFC (Near Field Communication) NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) NOR Memory Numeri

O

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) Optical Zoom OS (Operating System) OTA (Over-The-Air) Packet Data Pager PC Sync PCS (Personal Communications Service) PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) Percentile rank Phone Book Access (PBA) Phone Life Cycle Phone Physical Attributes Phonebook PIM (Personal Information Manager/Management) PIN code (Personal Identification Number) Pixel Pixel density (Pixels Per Inch) Polyphonic ringtones POP3 (Post Office Protocol) Port Predictive text input Price PTT (Push-To-Talk) PUK Code (PIN UnlocK Code) QCIF (Quarter Common Intermediate Format) Quad-band Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) QVGA (Quarter Video Graphics Array) QWERTY keyboar

R

RAM (Random-Access Memory) RBDS (Radio Broadcast Data System) RDS (Radio Data System) Rechargeable Battery Types Resistive touchscreen Resolution Ringer ID Ringing profiles Ringtone Roaming ROM (Read-Only Memory) RS-MMC (Reduced-Size Multi Media Card) RSA (Rural Service Area) RSS (Rich Site Summary) Ruggedized

S

S60 user interface SAP (SIM Access Profile) SAR (Specific absorption rate) Screen protection SD (Secure Digital) Secondary camera Sensors Side Keys SIM SIM lock Single-Band Skin Slimport Smart Watch Smartphone SMIL SMS (Short Messaging Service) SNS (Social network service) Soft keys Soft Reset Speed Dial Stand-by time (battery life) Stereo Speakers Streaming Video Stylus Sub-QCIF SVGA Symbian Talk time (battery life) TCP/IP TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) TEST Tethering Text messaging (texting) TFD (Thin Film Diode) TFT (Thin Film Transistor) Theme To-Do list Touchscreen Trackball Transflash Transflective

U

UFS UI (User Interface) UIQ UMA UMTS Unlocked phone Upload UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) USB (Universal Serial Bus) USB On-The-Go VGA (Video Graphics Array) Video call Video Codec Voice dialing Voice mail Voice memo VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) VPN (Virtual Private

W

WAP (Wireless Application protocol) watchOS WCDMA(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) Wear OS Wearable Technology webOS Wi-Fi Windows Mobile Windows Phone OS Wireless email WLAN WMV (Windows Medi

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