Comparing smartphone operating systems Tweet

The announcement this week of iPhone OS 4.0 marks Apple's latest salvo in the smartphone operating systems war. Indeed, that fight has been been especially heated this year. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is a top-to-bottom overhaul of the Windows Mobile OS and Google continues to aggressively roll out updates to Android. Palm hasn't been quite as active recently, but we're not discounting WebOS quite yet.

The following chart, which compares popular features among the latest OS releases from each manufacturer, demonstrates just how competitive the OS battle has become. For example, though we welcome multitasking on iPhone OS 4.0, we can't forget that the features has long been a part of Android and WebOS. With the number of available apps, however, Apple continues to lead the way.

Like we said, it's a brawl for the ages. As each company fired a shot, you can expect its competitors to respond in force. And that's something we love to watch.


Apple iPhone 4.0 Google Android 2.1 Palm WebOS 1.4 Windows Phone 7
Consumer availability This summer Now/td> Now Fourth quarter of this year
Multitasking Yes, but iPhone 3GS only Yes Yes Yes, but limited. Third-party apps will not be allowed to run in the background.
Notifications Yes, but only one at a time Yes, with multiple notifications bar Yes Yes
App folders Yes Yes No Apps arranged in "Hubs"
Tethering Yes, but AT&T has yet to support the feature Possible with third-party apps Yes, but dependent on carrier TBD*
VOIP Yes, with third-party apps Yes, with third-party apps No TBD
Gaming Many gaming apps available. Game Center feature adds new functionality Many gaming apps available Palm publicly released its PDK in March for game development. 3D games are already available. Xbox Live integration
Flash support You're kidding, right? Yes, but depends on handset Yes Yes, but not at launch
Number of titles in App Store iTunes App Store: More than 185,000 Android Market: More than 30,000 Palm App Catalog; More than 2,400 Windows Phone Marketplace; hasn't launched yet
Voice commands Yes Yes No TBD
Mass storage No Yes Yes TBD
Universal search Yes Yes Yes Yes
Music store iTunes Music Store Amazon MP3 Store Amazon MP3 Store Zune
Web browser Safari Android WebKit Internet Explorer
Copy/paste Yes Yes Yes No
Pinch and zoom multitouch Yes Yes Yes Yes
* Microsoft has yet to fully detail the features for Windows Phone 7.

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