Smartphones: System overload

    With the launch of Motorola's Cliq, the battle between mobile operating systems reaches new heights - and there may soon be a new leader. We survey the top players.

    By Kim Thai

    The new kid: Google's Android

    The smartphone market is exploding: 155 million smartphones were sold in 2008, and that number is expected to double in four years. But as the market grows, it's becoming more evident that the key factor isn't the phone itself, but the mobile operating system running the show inside.

    And that's what Motorola's banking on with the release of its new smartphone, the Cliq, which runs on the most ambitious OS out there, Google's Android.

    Android's open-source capability has the industry on edge, with some companies beginning to open up their systems to developers in response to Android's launch. Android has even given traction to other open-source systems, such as Linux-based Moblin.

    Still, Android has a long way to go, especially as it's only on a few phone models. But with such companies as Motorola, LG, and Samsung already supporting the open-source cause -- and Google's plans for 18 Android-powered phones to hit stores worldwide by the end of the year -- Android's likely to keep shaking things up.

    And Google's calling on developers to help it improve the latest Android version -- the "Donut" -- with the hope that in the next few years, it'll take the cake.

    The incumbent: Symbian

    Symbian is currently running on more than 150 million handsets -- or half the market -- making it the leader in the OS category.

    Most analysts attribute this success not necessarily to the content and features of the OS, but more to the wide reach of companies such as Samsung, Sony, and Nokia, whose phones carry Symbian.

    Nokia, in particular, spurred Symbian's dominance: The company sold more than 18 million smartphones this year alone, making it the year's No. 1 smartphone manufacturer, and it offers Symbian on all its smartphones, except for the new N900. (That's more than double what BlackBerry's Research in Motion has sold, and four times as much as Apple.)

    "Nokia sells, because they put a lot on the street," says Ken Dulaney, Gartner's vice president of mobile computing. "They really do a good job of influence at the point of sale."

    But with more players in the space every day, Symbian is steadily losing market share. Unless it can up its game considerably, it won't be long till Symbian is knocked out of the top spot.

    The innovator: iPhone OS

    Hailed as the most groundbreaking OS the market has ever seen, the iPhone OS has changed the smartphone market with its fluid user experience and touchscreen capability.

    But Apple is notorious for keeping outsiders out (unlike the completely open-source and open-platform Android). Couple this with the fact that competitors have caught up quickly to the iPhone's software capabilities -- and in some cases beat it -- and development could suffer.

    Dulaney argues that Apple has concentrated so much on visual experience that it has neglected some aspects of functionality -- an area where he says Symbian is "head and shoulders above" the iPhone OS.

    Apple has quickly gained ground in the smartphone market, and some say the company has redefined it. But since its OS can only run on the iPhone, its reach will be nowhere close to Symbian's.

    The businessperson: BlackBerry OS

    Sometimes, it seems like businesses these days couldn't survive without the BlackBerry.

    In the early 90s, Research in Motion's co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis saw e-mail's impact in offices and decided to take it to the mobile market. The company has not looked back since.

    "We knew e-mail was going to be the foundation of business -- that it'd replace fax," Lazaridis told Fortune in August. But today, RIM is struggling with the competition.

    Although revenue in RIM's most recent quarter were up 3% from the previous quarter to $3.53 billion, the growth is lower than projected. What's more, RIM estimates third quarter earnings could be as low as $3.6 billion -- about $300 million lower than market expectations.

    Analysts say that the BlackBerry OS feels a bit antiquated, and it's not as user-friendly as others. But Balsillie and Lazaridis see potential for their own business in the growth of the smartphone industry: Since the iPhone's introduction in June 2007, BlackBerry quarterly sales have more than tripled, from $1.1 billion to $3.4 billion.

    The underdog: webOS

    The Palm Pre has been the only phone reviewers say could give the iPhone a run for its money. Why? Because of the Palm's webOS.

    Most of Palm's team are ex-Apple folks, creating an interesting software rivalry between the two companies. Many of webOS's features seem concentrated on what the iPhone lacks: webOS allows for multiple applications to run simultaneously, and its search function is arguably easier to use than the iPhone 3GS's.

    And these features have yielded results. Palm's smartphone sales rose 134% last quarter, on the strength of the estimated 500,000 Pres sold this year. Palm Pre, which launched exclusively on Sprint, is expected to be available on other carriers next year.

    But webOS's strong debut elevates industry concerns that with so many players in such a crowded field, the market will become more fragmented -- and a fragmented mobile market means consumers are actually less able to connect across platforms.

    The odd man out: Windows Mobile

    As the mobile OS market turns more toward general consumers, Microsoft's Windows Mobile has chosen to focus on the business sector, with lackluster results. As the mobile systems debate heats up, Windows Mobile has been largely left out of the conversation, mainly because it's so behind its competitors in interactivity and functionality.

    But Windows Mobile is available on about 40 models, and most are from smaller manufacturers such as i-mate -- and that number is expected to grow only minimally with the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 in October. As the smartphone industry ballooned last year, Windows Mobile's market share fell.

    Gartner's Dulaney attributes the stall to Windows Mobile's user experience; its current version hasn't evolved much beyond the one Microsoft launched four years ago. When most companies made user experience their top priority, Dulaney says Microsoft neglected it. "Microsoft has tried and failed in the past," he says. "They have a big challenge to in 2010."