The Android operating system is the fastest growing operating system in terms of gaining market shares. This is mostly thanks to the platform’s impressive user interface, good choices of mobile phones and open source nature; as open source systems are able to attract more and more developers to create new applications and functions.

The Symbian operating system on the other hand, is slowly losing its grip on the market. Originally, the Symbian is a widely used OS (until now), but with its features and capabilities slowly dragging behind its competitors, fewer and fewer mobile phones are still using it. Right now, there are only a handful of significant smart phones that are using the OS (mostly from Sony Ericsson; the upcoming Vivaz and Kanna, as well as last year’s Satio). Other mobile phone manufacturers have been busy with either proprietary platforms or the Android and WinMo systems.

The big downer for Symbian came last year when Nokia announced that they would be using the Maemo operating system for the N-series of mobile phones. This announcement came shortly before Samsung announced that it would be focusing on the use of the Bada OS more and other systems less –leading to the inevitable rumor that Symbian was getting dropped completely. While both companies have expressed that they will continue to support and use the Symbian OS (especially Nokia), the fact that the OS needed to adapt to times was evident.

Originally, the Symbian OS was supposed to shift to open source sometime later this year. The plan has been moved much earlier in an apparent bid to attract more devs. Of course, this also means that we might see the Symbian and variations of it on other devices too.

Read more about the Symbian operating system going open source on Times Online.

Google developed the Android OS open platform. The operating system was designed to give life to mobile devices and phones. The idea that inspires the operating system is to bridge technology companies with mobile companies in the effort of creating an open operating system. Any developer can update the open operating system to improve the product to benefit its users.

The Android OS comes with a software development kit or SDK. This kit is also available from Google. Developers can make use of this kit so that they can come up with new applications that are compatible with the android platform. New applications can then be added to the built in applications with Android OS to the benefit and better experience of users.

Developers can create mobile experiences with the use of the Android OS. Beginning with the standard Application Programming Interface or API within the Android OS is made easy. Developers can access a series of procedure calls that will help them create applications through the use of common Android OS elements.

The Java Programming language facilitates the creation of applications for use on Android operating systems. The applications developed under Android OS can also run on any custom developed virtual machine environment under Linux. Through this, the base of the Android OS platform can operate under a Linux based operating system with a small footprint left on the computer device. The purpose of the virtual machine is to separate applications from the core Android OS from those developed by developers which in turn improves the stability of the device.

The Android OS is fairly new in the market. There are still numerous devices that are not compatible with this operating system. However, continuous alterations are being done to make it more acceptable to many devices. Some companies such as the T-Mobile device and HTC device are looking into using the Android OS.