The NYT has an article on the desire by carriers and mobile content developers to have as few mobile operating systems as possible. DoCoMo and Vodafone are making this policy, and I’m sure the others are looking to follow suit. In terms of smartphones: “Last year, two-thirds of smart phones sold ran on Symbian’s operating system, an increase of about four percentage points from 2005, according to Canalys, a consultant and market research firm based near London. Microsoft was second last year with a 14 percent market share, slightly less than the year before, followed by Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, with 7 percent, and Linux, with 6 percent, according to Canalys.” Which means that 93 percent of smartphones run one of four operating systems, which isn’t too bad.
One CEO, Fabrizio Capobianco of Funambol, is quoted as a cynic of the move..."I don’t see convergence of the operating systems happening anytime soon...Vodafone is trying to standardize by going with three operating systems, but now the iPhone is coming, so they will have to have at least four.” Which makes the assumption that Vodafone will try to offer the iPhone, which is far from assured.