Android is now second biggest Mobile OS

Google's Android mobile operating system has surpassed Apple's iPhone and Canada's Blackberry to become the second biggest smartphone platform after Nokia's Symbian. It has been revealed by research firm Gartner.

Gartner said Finland's Nokia sold 29.5 million smartphones during the third quarter of the year for a 36.6 percent share of the worldwide market, down from 44.6 percent a year ago.

Sales of Android-powered smartphones soared to 20.5 million units, giving the Android platform a 25.5 percent market share, up from just 3.5 percent a year ago, Gartner said.

Apple's iPhone was next on sales of 13.5 million units for a 16.7 percent market share, down from 17.1 percent a year ago.

Canada's Research In Motion, maker of the Blackberry, was in fourth position with sales of 11.9 million units. Its market share dropped to 14.8 percent from 20.7 percent a year ago.

Microsoft's Windows Mobile saw sales of 2.2 million units giving it a 2.8 percent market share, down from 7.9 percent a year ago, Gartner said.

"Smartphone providers have entered a period of accelerated platform evolution, stimulated by more regular product releases, new platform entrants and new device types," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.

"Any platform that fails to innovate quickly - either through a vibrant multi-player ecosystem or clear vision of a single controlling entity - will lose developers, manufacturers, potential partners and ultimately users."

Gartner said worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 417 million units in the third quarter, up 35 percent from a year ago.

Smartphone sales grew 96 percent to 81 million units and accounted for 19.3 percent of overall mobile phone sales in the quarter.

Nokia remained the world's top handset manufacturer with sales of 117.5 million units in the third quarter but saw its worldwide market share slip to 28.2 percent from 36.7 percent a year ago.

South Korea's Samsung was next on sales of 71.7 million units but its market share also fell - to 17.2 percent from 19.6 percent a year ago.

South Korea's LG sold 27.5 million handsets. Its market share dipped to 6.6 percent from 10.3 percent a year ago.

Apple leapfrogged RIM during the quarter with sales of 13.5 million units, giving it a 3.2 percent market share, up from 2.3 percent a year ago.

RIM sold 11.9 million units. Its market share edged up to 2.9 percent from 2.8 percent a year ago.

Sony Ericsson sold 10.3 million units for a 2.5 percent market share, down from 4.5 percent, while US handset maker Motorola sold 9.0 million units for a 2.1 percent market share, down from 4.5 percent a year ago.

Gartner said Samsung was the top Android seller in the quarter with sales of 6.6 million Android phones.

The technology research company said it expects overall mobile device sales to grow 30 percent year-on-year in 2010 and for sales of tablet computers such as Apple's iPad to reach 54.8 million units in 2011.

Google to launch Chrome Operating System

Google is working on a new operating system, called Chrome OS, for inexpensive computers in a daring attempt to wrest away Microsoft’s long running control over computing experience.

The new operating system will be based on its Chrome browser and would be an open source operating system initially targeted at netbooks. Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010.

Google is designing the operating system primarily for "netbooks," a lower-cost, less powerful breed of laptop computers that is becoming increasingly popular among budget-conscious consumers primarily interested in surfing the Web.

The operating system represents Google's boldest challenge yet to its biggest nemesis - Microsoft.

A high-stakes duel between the two technology powerhouses has been steadily escalating in recent years as Google's dominance of the Internet's lucrative search market has given it the means to threaten Microsoft in ways that few other companies can.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been trying to thwart Google by investing billions of dollars to improve its own Internet search and advertising systems.

In the past month or so, though, Microsoft has been winning positive reviews and picking up more users with the latest upgrade to its search engine, now called "Bing." Microsoft is hailing the makeover with a $100 million marketing campaign.

Now Google is aiming for Microsoft's financial jugular with Chrome its operating system.

Despite its own power and prominence, Google won't have an easy time changing the status quo that has governed the personal computing industry for so long.

The Chrome operating system will run in a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel - computer coding that has been the foundation for the open-source software movement.

Google has already introduced an operating system called Android, but that is only used for mobile phones at the moment.

The Android system worked well enough to entice some computer makers to begin developing netbooks that will eventually run on it.

Google, though, apparently believes a Chrome-based system will be better suited for running applications in netbooks.

"Computers need to get better. People want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them and they want to access the Internet instantly,” Google said.

"Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems," said the company.

"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds," the company said.

Russia to Develop own national operating system

According to CNews, Russia is planning to develop its own national operating system. The move is designed to reduce Russia's need to rely on foreign software and licensing agreements. And the alleged "open code" solution, likely a Linux/GNU derivative, will give Russia a greater degree of customization, as well as increased control over how the potentially free OS is used and accessed.

This isn't the first time Russia has dabbled with the idea of widespread open-source software distribution. According to Russia Today, a pilot program is already underway in three Russian regions to replace Microsoft-branded operating systems in Russian schools with Linux alternatives. All Russian schools are expected to make the software switch by 2009.

Get ready for the next operating system- Midori

According to a report by SD Times, Eric Rudder, senior vice president for technical strategy at Microsoft, has been working on the OS named as ‘Midori’, which is heavily dependent on the Internet based and designed to work on native hardwares (x86, x64 and ARM).

“That sounds possible—I’ve heard rumors to the effect that he had an OS project in place,” says Rob Helm, director of research at Directions on Microsoft, hinting at the latest development at Microsoft.

Windows has come a long way since its release in 1985. The first version of the operating system was Windows 1.0. The latest from Microsoft is the Windows Vista. Midori is expected to be the first operating system outside the Windows umbrella; however it will be hosted by Windows Hyper-V hypervisor or by a Windows process.