Many players entered into this market and failed to gain the upper hand over the hugely successful iPhone. Still, Android stands its well earned ground and still gives good competition to Apple and its iOS based products. Apple’s real success is very well grounded in its operating system iOS and applications support from the App Store. Google does the same with Android and the Android Store, but it is an accepted fact that Android is not as economically strong as iOS. Some other participants in this mobile OS arms race are BlackBerry OS, WebOS, Symbian, Windows Phone 7 and some more in their own niche and playing their cards for (local) dominance.
The latest operating systems that are coming up with big flashing neon lights are MeeGo and the newly announced Grid OS. MeeGo is not a new thing and is an open source platform. Used to have Nokia support… No more.
Fusion Garage (sadly well known for a lawsuit fight with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington) brings Grid OS, a completely new player entering into the arena with zero fan niches. The OS base is not completely new since it is Android based, armed with a new and shiny interface. This is the bonus point for Grid OS, you can use Android apps natively. Of course, this was the whole point of Google's open sourcing Android: competition.
What makes special Grid OS? The home screen of this latest OS is quite nice and captivating. Definitely, it is quite intriguing after using iOS devices and other Android based devices. The flexibility is its capacity to group applications and expand or collapse each group according to the needs of the user. Designers are still tweaking this from an usability point of view, but it looks and feels gorgeous.
It is a completely gesture based OS. Removing capacitive buttons is making the OS more interesting. Windows Phone 7 works through dynamic tiles and its interaction for the user is very far from the flowing feeling of Grid OS. Only time will tell if Grid OS stands its ground or disappears into mediocrity (or oblivion).
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