Various Mobile OS available In the market

Mobile OS are used to control mobile hardware to perform some specific tasks.Below are the Mobile operating system available in the market.

• Android from Google Inc
• BlackBerry OS from Research In Motion (RIM)
• iOS from Apple Inc
• Symbian from Nokia and Accenture
• Windows Phone from Microsoft
• Firefox OS from Firefox
• Web OS from HP
• Bada OS from Samsung Electronics

The factors that one can weigh their options on are – Looks/Feel, Usability, Features, Performance, and Applications. Other deciding factors could be Quality of Applications, Ease of developing Applications.
 

Application distribution format for each of the OS

App file extension for each OS type

• Android .APK
• iOS .IPA
• Blackberry .ALX for side loaded apps, .COD .JAD, for OTA installations
• Windows .CAB, .XAP, .PWI, .MENC, .NBH, .SKN
• Symbian .SIS

How to Install Apps on Mobile

Install apps on iOS:

• Installing Apps Via a Desktop Computer Using iTunes, CopyTransManager, Configuration Utility Manager
• Using a Provisioning File
• Installing Apps Directly from the App Store
• Installing Apps on a Jail-broken iPhone using several apps like AppCake, iFile

Install apps on Android:

• Installing Apps Via Desktop Computer, other app sources like amazon app store
• Installing Apps Directly from Google Play Store

Install apps on Blackberry:

• Installing using the Desktop Manager
  • Launch Blackberry Desktop Manager and plug in the Blackberry device
  • Install drivers if it is the first time
  • Open Application Loader
  • Select Add/Remove applications and Click on ‘Start’
• Installing Via OTA
  • Navigate to web site where download link of the application is available
  • Click on ‘download link’
  • Click on install after selecting the options in the pop up
  • Launch app

Using Loader.exe To install applications

• From the Desktop, navigate to the website where the application has to be downloaded from, and download the file
• Navigate to Start>run> C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader where the ‘loader.exe’ is stored by default Here, double click on the “loader.exe“ in the explorer type view
• Hit next in the wizard, it will prompt you to select port the device is connected to. It should list your BlackBerry and the PIN for the device in the drop down, Click next and it will populate the application info for your device.
• It will now populate a list of the applications, Notice at the top of the screen, you will have an “add” and “delete” option.
• On clicking Add, you should browse to the location of unzipped files, the .alx file, and then hit next. This is also a great place to manage the applications that are on your BlackBerry.
• Finally, make sure that all the programs you want are checked and hit next to proceed installation. It will reboot and application is installed.

Install apps on Windows:

• Installing using the Windows App Store
• Installing Via OTA
  • Navigate to web site where download link of the application is available
  • Click on ‘download link’
  • Click on install after selecting the options in the pop up
• Installing using Windows Mobile Device Center
  • Launch and plug in the device (device detected)
  • Paste the .exe file in the WMDC
  • Sync with the phone