The mobile Operating System lottery?

Continuing on the statistics theme...If hype was a true representation of market share then you would be forgiven for believing that the most popular mobile operating system - the thing that makes the phone tick - was that run by the iPhone.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/23/smartphone-iphone-sales-2009-gartner/

There in fact seven major operating systems for smartphones - mobile phones with a large, high-resolution screen, internet access and the ability to download applications from third party providers - and in actual fact it was the Symbian platform that accounted for nearly 50% of the worldwide market share during 2009. Second on that list was Blackberry's Research In Motion (RIM) whose share was a fraction shy of 20%. iPhone came in third, a place up from 2008, and according to the figures Android was languishing behind Microsoft Windows Mobile and Linux in sixth.

However, as we all know technology moves at a frantic pace and these figures don't tell the whole story. Symbian handset sales were up 10% in 2009 from the previous year, but their market share fell 5.5%. The big gains were made by Android and iPhone and first quarter results for 2010 further support this shift in power.

So what does all this say when deciding on what platform(s) you should choose when looking to develop apps for your visitors?

Current sales are one thing, but we need to remember that mobile phones sold over a year ago are still in circulation - and their owners still want to feel they have a phone that is being catered for. Cross platform apps - software written for several operating systems - may cost more money to develop, but until either a) one operating system wins out (unlikely) or b) one language can work on all operating systems (even more unlikely) then it is best not to put all your eggs in one basket. With audio we are lucky. The MP3 file is generic and will work on any mobile device.

So if you are wanting to develop an app which platforms are king? Symbian runs on a java environment and with such a large market share it would be careless to exclude this, even if its market share is falling and it doesn't have such a visible app store - although unlike some platforms it will accept content from a Bluetooth unit installed on site. iPhone and especially Android are experiencing growth and are the first two operating systems when you think of apps. These in my opinion are the three main players, although Blackberry owners too would argue a strong case for inclusion.

At the end of the day perhaps when visitor surveys take are undertaken at your property should we be asking what mobile phones people have and whether they would engage with mobile digital interpretation, in addition to where they have come from that day.

It would be interesting to know if anyone has undertaken such a study and what the results were.