Android – smartphones dominate the phone market today. Many do not even know that there have ever been alternatives not in the form of iOS, which is very difficult to compete with Android due to the fact that it is a closed operating system tied to one brand. It's hard to popularize iOS when iPhone isn't selling very well. However, Apple was lucky, as the company was the first on the market to introduce a modern operating system. Android – phones appeared when iPhone had already won the hearts of consumers. Let's take a look at what solutions have been proposed as alternatives to Android and iOS, and which of these seems to us the most interesting.
Were there alternatives to Android?
BlackBerry 10 – strict style and convenience
We'll start with the operating system BlackBerry 10. It was released as a replacement for BlackBerry OS, and the first phones on the new operating system were BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10. In the background Android, the operating system BlackBerry seemed amazing. She had a very cool strict design, which in 2012 could not be offered by other manufacturers, since at that time Android it was absolutely nothing. For example, BlackBerry 10 introduces gesture control, which is so popular today, but now you know what exactly BlackBerry was the first to make convenient control on a smartphone. I had a Z10, I bought it in 2017 on Aliexpress for 5 thousand rubles. This, of course, was a remanufactured version, but even in 2017 I felt the beauty of this operating system. It is very convenient and pleasant to use. The Z10 is probably the nicest and most quirky phone I've ever owned. In addition, it offered the BlackBerry Hub feature, which displayed all user notifications (missed calls, app notifications, emails, and so on) in a convenient format.
Why did the system fail? The reason for this, in my opinion, is the lack of normal applications in the store. Since BB10 was running on a kernel Linux, I remember installing Google services and trying to emulate launching Android – applications. And it was torture, in truth. The standard store didn't offer good social media customers. There was no normal client for Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. It was impossible to use a smartphone normally if you suddenly wanted to become a part of any social network. And Android – although the applications could be launched, they worked extremely slowly and constantly crashed.
FireFox OS – a system with web technologies
Firefox OS
In 2013, the operating system Firefox OS was introduced. There is nothing special to tell about it, the system was supported for about two years, after the project was closed. The reason for the closure is quite simple – large manufacturers did not offer smartphones on this operating system, and FireFox OS itself did not work very smoothly. However, the concept itself seems interesting, today PWA applications, which are based on web technologies, are becoming popular. Something similar was offered by FireFox already then. And it was interesting for emerging markets, the concept could live and develop, it is not clear why Firefox did not continue to work on its system.
Tizen from Samsung
Tizen OS
Oh yes, I remember how everyone on the Web wrote that Samsung is developing a replacement Android. Samsung wanted to create an operating system that could be used in netbooks and watches, as well as in smartphones and cars. Something similar is currently being developed on a microkernel Huawei.
After two years of development, Samsung announced the release of several Tizen smartphones in 2013. Since then, several Tizen phones and a bunch of smartwatches on Tizen have indeed been presented. The system cannot be called a complete failure. For example, in mid-2017, the company released the Samsung Z4 on Tizen OS. And amid the problems Huawei Samsung may continue to develop its system.
WebOS – a revolution without a future
The project began development in 2007, and two years later, the first Palm webOS smartphone, Palm Pre, was released. In 2010, the company was bought by HP, so it managed to release only a few phones on this operating system. To understand all the beauty of WebOS, it is enough to evaluate it from the video above. The system is currently used in smart TVs LG.
Windows Phone is the best alternative
Windows Phone 10
This is probably the biggest competitor Android and iOS you can write about forever. The system offered a tiled design and very smooth operation when released. Many – including me – liked the operating system Microsoft. Of course, before Windows 10 it could hardly be called very functional, but the company worked on it, it released major updates. Windows Phone 10 was a pretty good system that could have an interesting future, but for some reason the project was closed without offering an alternative. Only in 2019 Microsoft introduced the Surface Duo smartphone at Windows 10. Let's see how they surprise us in the future.
Which operating system did you find most interesting? Share your opinion in the comments and do not forget about our Telegram chat.