In the mobile device world (based purely on operating system) are iOS (Apple) and Android, while less popular mobile operating systems like Windows, Linux, or Opera struggle to even be relevant. Let's look at the market share of smart phones. We can see that Android reign's supreme with total usage, but that may simply because many of the smart phones that come free with a contract are Android. What I would really be interested to see, would be the stats between flagship and mid-ranged Android devices, such as the Galaxy S4 or the Moto X,and ect. holds up to the other OS in terms of numbers. Because of this skew in data, I want to disregard Android in my discussion. I also own a Galaxy S4, so I don't want to be a form of bias :)
Instead, the two systems I want to take a look at are iOS and Windows. Apple has historically been in the shadow of Microsoft in the computer world. Right now, Microsoft still reigns king in the computer world, with less than 5% of the market share being Mac computers. This is a whole different story in the mobile world. In 2007, Apple unveiled to the world a device that would forever change the mobile market, the iPhone. With the iPhone came iOS and the app store that synced to your iTunes account. There was an app store that added to the whole Apple ecosystem. Soon people could download games, business apps, you name it and the app store probably had it. Because this technology was new, many developers decided to invest time and money to develop for the iPhone. Some of the most iconic apps are Angry Birds and Flappy Birds. This meant that this one phone created an entire community for people to consume media and entertainment.
Microsoft has already been in the mobile market well before Apple has with their PDAs. They were large, clunky, and expensive. I know because I have had the displeasure of using them to ring up orders at work. Of course, seeing the success of Google and Apple, Microsoft themselves wanted a cut of the pie. They created a Microsoft operating system for phones. It didn't do so well as the user interface was clunky and the app store was barren. This deterred developers from developing for Windows phone, and without developers, there was no community to consume apps.
It was only recently that Microsoft saw need to drastically change. Their user interface, dubbed "Metro" was added onto their Windows 8 PCs and tablets. They have an exclusivity deal with Nokia to produce more phone. I honestly think that the current Nokia Lumia is a rather attractive phone with great hardware that would shame the iPhone 5S. Unfortunately, the software isn't quite there yet and there is much resistance to the blocky UI of Metro. This clumsy UI has also tainted the reputation of their Windows 8 OS for PCs. One of the designers of Windows 8 even stated that Metro is the anti-thesis for power users.
I think that Microsoft has a long way to go before even being seen as a viable 3rd options for phones. Apple is often criticized for stagnating improvements with their hardware, but their software takes full advantage of the tools available. Right now, Microsoft has some of the most amazing hardware, but no way to utilize it.
Seriously, it's blocky...
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