Software Testing Blog

The mobile wars are heating up! Microsoft is aggressively luring app developers for its Windows Phone 7 OS, while Android quietly gains market share. Blackberry expects big things out of OS 6, while The Big Apple deals with antenna issues, the yellow screen of death and the (remote) possibility of a recall. Interesting times indeed.

As part of our newly-launched “What Do uThink?” series (more on this shortly), we decided to ask our community which mobile OS they considered to be the best. Here are the results:

1. Android – 38%
2. RIM Blackberry – 28%
3. Apple – 16%
4. Symbian – 12%
5. Windows Mobile – 6%

“What do uThink?” is a weekly poll, where we’ll be asking the uTest community their preferences and feedback on various apps, operating systems and other technologies. To encourage voting, we’ll be awarding monthly and quarterly prizes to randomly selected participants. This quarter, for instance, we’re giving away an iPod Touch. The weekly polls open every Tuesday afternoon and voting takes place in the uTest Forums available to registered testers) as well as on our Facebook page. Got it?

Good. Now back to the mobile OS results…

As you can see from the fractured vote count, there’s a strong case to be made for each mobile operating system. Below are some updated excerpts from the Forums thread where this question first appeared.

The case for Android, posted by “pedro gonzalez”:

“As a Google OS, Android knows better than any other OS how to manage Google maps, Gmail, Geolocators, browsers, and a lot of other Google applications. I’m a Gmail user, so the Gmail sync is one of the most valuable things for me.

There are a lot of tools for developers/testers within SDK, in addition the testing part is much better in Android, since the OS is much flexible than others (less limitations allow the programmer-tester to be creative).

Android is not as mature yet as other OS (Blackberry for example was released 10 years ago), although Android is getting better and better each release. For example, Adobe’s Flash player is supported in mobile devices for the first time ever from the last Android release.

There are a lot of cons too regarding the OS maturity (like the total 254Mb limitation), but it seems that the Android guys are working on this.”

The case for Apple, posted by “madhukarjain”:

I also voted for Apple….

Once you use it you will know why Apple can become a part of you’re life, so much that you can’t think of switching to another phone.

From GPS naviation to gaming to stock trading to radio…..you name it and Apple has an App for it and mostly for free, even if not free then most apps are 99 cents which is worth the money for its use.

Many people might disagree and will consider Blackberry or Android as better, but once you use its full capacity then you realize whats the Magic of Apple.

The case for RIM, posted by “jayadinu”:

1.Obviously its performance
2.GSM for its roaming ability
3.Camera and video capability
4.Full QWERTY keyboard
4.Push Email services and many other factors like “A very good deal that I could afford “

Care to weigh in on this debate? The comment box is all yours. Want to vote in the next weekly poll? Visit the uTest Forums or check out our Facebook page.