Smartphone OS Smackdown: iPhone OS 3.0 vs. WebOS vs. the World
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But Apple has been busy, too. Last week, it released its third major version, iPhone OS 3.0, which ships on the iPhone 3GS and is available as a free upgrade for owners of previous iPhones (and as a $10 upgrade for iPod Touch owners). It remains the next-generation mobile OS to beat.
The new iPhone OS 3.0 boasts more than a hundred new features--some of them subtle and whimsical, others more overt and useful. Version 3.0 represents an evolutionary, not revolutionary advance. Its stiffest competition comes from two operating systems that didn't exist when the iPhone was first announced and that seem to have drawn plenty of inspiration from Apple's phone: Android and WebOS. Except for its lack of mutitasking for third-party apps, however, iPhone OS 3.0 feels richer and more mature than either of those two OSs.
Read on for a look at how the latest iPhone OS compares with Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Nokia's Symbian S60 5th Edition, Palm's WebOS, and RIM's BlackBerry OS. I judged the five operating systems on their capabilities, ease of use, and visual panache, and I assessed both their standard applications and associated third-party programs.
Apple iPhone OS 3.0
How it looks: Terrific. Everything from the sophisticated typography to the smooth animation effects contributes to the richest, most attractive environment ever put on a handheld device.
Apple could stand to learn a trick or two about Web integration from WebOS (which tightly integrates its apps with Facebook and other Web services) and Android (which logically works extremely well with Google services such as Gmail).
Bottom line: Despite the strides made by Android and WebOS, iPhone OS 3.0 stands as the most enjoyable and intuitive phone operating system available today.
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