MeeGo, Sailfish and BlackBerry 10
It's 2016, and the mobile world is two things: iOS and Android. The former, run by the world's most profitable company, began the smartphone boom. The latter, owned and administered by the world's foremost data-mining firm, expanded that boom to the farthest reaches of the globe.
Today, their dominance is so complete that it is almost impossible to imagine any alternate situation, for Android and iOS success is an inevitability, guaranteed and impossible to escape.
And yet this was not always the case. Since 2008 many firms, keen to get in on the lucrative smartphone game, have entered the fray with home-grown mobile operating systems. Some were beautiful, some were game-changing, some were just awful.
Sailfish OS, MeeGo, Firefox OS, BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 7/8, WebOS: the past is littered with the detritus of many once great titans and smaller upstarts. Read on for a glimpse of what has passed, and what could have been.
MeeGo
Though the name 'Nokia' has not always been synonymous with smartphones, for many the first phone they owned came from the Finnish firm.
Indeed, in 2010 Nokia was the biggest phone manufacturer in the world, commanding over 40% of the total market at the time, a share that dwarfs that of any handset maker in the present. However, not all was well in Espoo HQ, despite the then healthy sales figures.
As with many companies that experience staggering success, Nokia got fat and complacent. Its internal structure grew bloated and incapable of reacting to quick changes. The firm subsequently failed to pay enough attention to the rise of Android and iOS, at least until 2011. It was then that the Nokia N9 was released, the first and only device to come bearing the MeeGo operating system.
Forged from code created at both Intel and Nokia, MeeGo was something slightly revolutionary. Boasting slim system requirements, an intuitive touch interface, message hubs and multitasking, the emphasis was on creating a flow through the user experience. The hope was it was something the opposition at the time simply couldn't match.
Ultimately, this system was a victim of the internal politics that would slowly claim Nokia's soul. Unconvinced by the potential of the system, and perhaps swayed by generous subsidies from Microsoft, CEO Stephen Elop published the famous 'burning platform' memo, burying MeeGo and the N9 in favor of Windows Phone.
Today the project exists only as a reminder of what could have been, and the tragic fall of Nokia into relative nothingness.
Sailfish OS
Created by a group of former Nokia engineers (with seed funding from the firm itself), Sailfish OS is heavily based on the code used in MeeGo. The only real difference is in the user interface, which had to be altered from the original 'Harmattan' version as Nokia retained the rights to this.
Instead, the user interacts with Sailfish through an innovative series of gestures, with minimal button inputs, again with the emphasis on flow. Apps are kept open, running in the background and can be pinned, as with MeeGo.
Jolla is the company behind the operating system (the name meaning "raft" in Finnish, and intended as a riposte to the 'burning platform' memo), and the life span of its products has been characterized by grand ambitions and neutered realities.
Offering the OS as a community project, Jolla has developed a small but devoted cult following around its product, but devices bearing the operating system, other than its own in-house effort, have been scant, even occasionally turning into vaporware.
2016 marked the birth of the first OEM device to come bearing Sailfish OS, the Intex Aqua Fish, intended solely for the Indian market. Jolla itself has since ceased production of its sole handset (the Jolla Phone), and the arrival of its first tablet has been somewhat botched as a result of a mismanaged Indiegogo campaign.
Now focusing solely on the production and refinement of its software offerings, things are still looking dicey for the firm, which recently had to accept a bailout following a difficult financial period.
BlackBerry 10
Another operating system spawned from a former giant, as the name might infer, this was the brainchild of BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion [RIM]).
In the period spanning 2002 - 2010, RIM enjoyed something of a meteoric rise, especially among businesses. Arguably the first company to get mobile email 'right', its handsets enjoyed enormous success, with particular fondness being reserved for their ever-improving physical keyboards.
Yet, as with Nokia, BlackBerry failed to pay significant attention to the rise and rise of Android and iOS. Over time, as its consumer base began to crumble quickly, it doubled down on business, and believed that it had something of an ace in BlackBerry 10.
Sharing much of the same design DNA as MeeGo and Sailfish, BlackBerry 10 is built around gestures, allowing users to swipe right and left, as well as from all four corners of the screen, while background apps are 'pinned' to the home screen, running slightly like widgets in the background.
Innovative as it was, by the time the software was released Blackberry had missed the boat completely. Launching to little fanfare, adoption was muted, leading to a series of internal power struggles and strife at BlackBerry, which saw enormous job losses and a complete change in priorities.
With the firm now shifting its attentions to the greener pastures of Android, testing the water with the likes of 2015's excellent BlackBerry Priv and the 2016 BlackBerry DTEK50, the future of Blackberry 10 is one of interminable decline. It still remains committed to the platform, but the likelihood of new BB 10 hardware remains bleak.
Firefox OS, Palm OS/WebOS and Windows Phone
Firefox OS
Mozilla is well-known for its popular web browser, Firefox, and yet the non-profit firm has also branched out into a number of different areas, some of them quite surprising.
On the surface, the drive towards creating an in-house, open-source operating system was to counter the decline of the open web, something that tech die-hards have been concerned about for some time. With the rise of apps and walled garden approaches to software, Mozilla decided to act.
The result was Firefox OS, focusing on the mobile web, HTML5 and a very low entry price. Indeed, though it proved to be non-existent in the end, much of the early conversation was dominated by Mozilla's promise of the first (usable) $25 smartphone, running Firefox OS.
As time went by Mozilla achieved some success, managing to sell a small number of devices in Columbia and Venezuela, among other countries, but nothing like the quantities needed either to break even or to gain any market share.
The result was obsolescence and as the media train moved on interest in Firefox OS waned. Mozilla itself, lacking the resources of a Google or an Apple, proved to be seemingly only half-interested in its offering and eventually closed the mobile OS for good in the latter quarter of 2015.
Much like Palm OS (another entry on this list) though, the software lives on - in televisions. Panasonic now employs an altered version in many of its units, giving it an afterlife as part of the 'Internet of Things' (widely regarded as one of the worst tech newspeak terms since 'phablet' came into existence).
Palm OS/WebOS
Before Nokia and BlackBerry got into the touchscreen smartphone game, before Android began to explode and when the Apple iPhone was still a hobbled little thing there was Palm and WebOS.
Sporting a much imitated gesture interface, card-based multitasking (which has been aped by everyone since) and many other futuristic features, WebOS was arguably the first operating system that introduced the concept of "smart" to smartphones.
First found on the Palm Pre in June 2009, such was the potential behind WebOS that HP bought Palm outright in 2010 for $1.2 billion.
Soon, the tide began to turn. Apple brought out the iconic iPhone 4 while Android advanced its appeal considerably through the likes of the HTC Desire. Interest in WebOS began to wane, not helped by HP's seeming inability to find a vision for its new product.
Shortly following the abortive launch of the HP TouchPad in 2011 (49 days to be precise), HP abandoned WebOS and all devices running the software.
This marked the end of WebOS on smartphones, however the operating system has since found new life through LG, with the firm including it - to significant acclaim - in its smart televisions.
Windows Phone 7 and 8
And now to the granddaddy of them all, at least in terms of money and effort spent. Windows Phone was Microsoft's answer to the Android/iOS duopoly, intended to have the strengths of both and the weaknesses of neither.
Sporting a bold new design and a daring interface utilizing 'live tiles', Windows Phone had a focus on simplicity and usability over unnecessary features and frippery.
Exercising total control over specifications and updates, Microsoft was able to keep the software experience tight and focused, leaving manufacturers to be inventive with their hardware, rather than over-complicating the user interface.
First debuting at MWC in 2010, Windows Phone 7 was a breath of fresh air, and enjoyed some not insignificant hardware support from PC OEMs – such as Dell, HP and Acer - looking to get in on the smartphone boom.
Initial enthusiasm led to a quick drop off in support, and soon Windows Phone 7 began to drift. Sensing the lack of momentum, Microsoft rebooted (knowing its way around a blue screen or six) with Windows Phone 8.
Sporting more functionality, and eventually the popular voice assistant Cortana, Windows Phone 8 nonetheless still failed to ignite the global market with a poorly stocked app store at the heart of the issues.
Now, the picture is grim. Microsoft has rebooted once again, this time with Windows 10 Mobile, another rejiggering of its mobile dream. However, with a lack of investment, in both funds and willpower, the platform is beginning to wilt badly, with the paucity of apps becoming even more problematic with several first party developers pulling out entirely (even Amazon is reported to be leaving the game).
Microsoft's mobile vision looks to be grinding to a halt, and it might take a true miracle to save it.
- For an operating system that isn't likely to fail check out iOS 10
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