Part 1: Current situation

Let’s start with Apple.

Apple has been a strong brand in the mobile industry since it began. We’ve seen iPhones and iPads, all from decent to excellent quality devices. Of course, every new system has its problems, but Apple always played pretty quickly. They offer high-quality hardware, but slightly lackluster software in certain areas.

I will give you a simple example. The menu of your iPhone or iPad. It’s not too easy to change the design of things, or customize it, as they say. Apple has placed certain restrictions on what you can and cannot do with the standard software. Of course, smart people have found a way around this, but still, charging loads of money for a high-quality product without being able to add a personal touch? A bit strange if you ask me…

Another software related problem that prevented me from buying an iPhone or iPad is the need to use iTunes. iTunes is a great program, don’t get me wrong. I use it every two weeks for my iPod. However, I expected more from Apple regarding its iPhones and iPads. Any media you want to load into the internal memory of such devices requires iTunes. To some extent, I can understand the need to use an additional program.

But iTunes is very complicated to use. It’s slow sometimes. File transfers take years to complete. It doesn’t even let you keep some original media formats, because you have to convert them first. In general, for me personally, this is a rather negative aspect of excellent products. I just prefer to do things right, fast, and smoothly.

Next, we have Google, running the Android operating system.

Google has become a familiar brand to anyone remotely connected to the Internet or technology. They have come a long way, however, they still have a long way to go. I’m an Android user myself (though not necessarily a fanboi), and I like the state Android is in.

However, it does not meet all my needs. I am a media person. None of the Android OS, be it official builds or custom ROMs, can fully satisfy me. I believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but we will have to look forward to seeing what the future holds.

The biggest drawback of the Android operating system is this: Gingerbread is fine for smartphones, however not all models will have an (official) version of Gingerbread. For tablets, Honeycomb is a great piece of software, but not all tablets upgrade to Honeycombs, which is supposed to be THE Android OS until we get Ice Cream Sandwich for a “unified experience of both worlds.”

In this sense, Apple is more consistent in making a complete operating system to cover the needs and strengths of that particular device. I’m pretty sure Ice Cream Sandwich (from what I’ve seen so far) takes a big step in the right direction. But there is still work to be done after that. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, we’ll come back to Ice Cream Sandwich later.

All of this brings us to BlackBerry. Where to start in this matter?

Blackberry has been a standard for business users, and for a good portion of non-business users as well, for years. Everyone had to have a Blackberry to ensure an optimal mobile experience on their smartphones or tablets. And Blackberry still offers great business functionality on its devices. If it works correctly, that is.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the recent Blackberry outage, which left most (if not all) users around the world without email or Internet services for a few days. We are not talking about a few hundred people, we are talking about a GLOBAL OUTAGE of the most used services on a smartphone or tablet. After everything was sorted, they tried to make up for this by giving everyone “over a hundred dollars worth of premium apps for free.”

Now let’s be honest here, how many of you had 3 or more useful premium apps in that bundle? Basically most of you squatted. Which means that Blackberry only compensated business users, if they actually had any use for the premium apps, that is. All other users were left out in the cold. A recent survey noted that 60% of current Blackberry users will not sign up for a new Blackberry device after their contract expires. Oh!

On a brighter note, this will not be the end of Blackberry or RIM. But the same applies to Blackberry as to Google: take a step in the right direction and keep going from there. If you want people to stick with Blackberry, or even attract new customers, you’ll need to get organized as soon as possible.

Last but not least, we have Windows Mobile from Microsoft.

In my opinion, this could be the dark horse of this breed. Windows Mobile has been around for a while, it hasn’t achieved any big hits, but it hasn’t been knocked out by the other competitors either. It has always been around, and believe me, it will be around long after the competitors have disappeared into obscurity.

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, or Windows Phone as it’s formally known, has been synonymous with quality user experiences (at least for the most part), combined with decent hardware, in a reliable Windows-style environment. Windows Phone has always been aimed at consumers, and not necessarily at businesses, compared to RIM’s Blackberry.

After facing development cancellation in 2004, Microsoft reorganized the Windows Mobile Group, leading to the first, albeit provisional, release of Windows Mobile in 2009. Things didn’t start out well, because Windows Mobile wasn’t compatible with any Windows Phone app. This was due to lack of resources and time.

Eventually, the name of the operating system changed to Windows Phone 7. (Sounds catchy, don’t you think?) As of this writing, Microsoft has struck a deal with Nokia (yes, they still exist) to distribute Windows Phone 7 in a new line of smartphones coming to a place near you. However, those exact locations have yet to be revealed as of now. You have to love mysterious people a little!

Part 2: The future?

In my opinion, this fatal game of four will lead to a three-horse race, with the other player sitting in the seats slowly watching and waiting for his skillful plan to return to the scene. I will explain my future vision of the mobile world:

The two main brands will continue to be Apple, with its iOS, and Google, with its Android operating system. Both companies seem to be going the same way in terms of software development, user experience, and hardware upgrades. However, Apple still has a huge advantage in that it controls all aspects of the manufacturing and development process.

Android will continue to increase mobile device sales (not units shipped, actual sales), but will remain slightly behind Apple’s undisputed leadership in the current market. A turn for leadership could happen at some point in the future, but I wouldn’t expect it in the early years. Slowly but steadily though, we will see the market even out.

Windows Mobile will appeal to most low-level, non-technical users. They have a line of decent smartphones, which are easy to use with decent hardware under the hood, produced by Nokia. Not everyone wants to pay top dollar for a smartphone, and certainly not everyone needs all the features available on iOS or Android smartphones or tablets. Will we ever see Windows Mobile on a tablet? Only time will tell, but it would be a smart move in my opinion.

Blackberry’s RIM will ultimately be left behind in the next few years if they don’t step up their game for both regular consumers and businesses. It is quite possible that they will drop out of the mobile market altogether, never to be heard from in this regard again. Or they could surprise us all and become the number one company in the business. Who can tell?