OS for mobile phones

[v0dka]

I have a few questions, that I encountered in my master thesis. I write this thesis on software patents from the persepctive of a lawyer, not that of a software programmer. Not sure if Im in the right section though.

Here are my questions.

- What would a typical OS on a typical mobile phone look like? Is it an OS from the manufacturer itself, or is there one global OS? Ofcourse there's windows mobile as an example of a more interoperable OS, but that is just used on PDA's and smartphones.

- What coding languague would this OS be in typically?

- What would be your global approach on a program that does the following (describe in a few lines how it could look like):

"A computer program for automatically registering images on a computer, and sending it to a mobile device, e-mail fax (...) with the goal of automatically displaying this information on a mobile phone"

Dont mind translation errors, it's a dutch patent.

Thanks for any help.

[funnyperson1]

A lot of phones use Symbian (including all the Nokias I believe):
http://www.symbian.com/

[s7e9h3n]

Although I'm not much of a coder, I do have a decent working knowledge about Windows Mobile so I'll do my best to help:

First off, we have to differentiate between a "PDA phone" and a "smartphone".
The easiest way to do this is to look at the OS installed on the phone. If the phone is running windows mobile 6.0 professional, 5.0, 2003, or 2002 the phone is considered a PDA phone. They include features such as a querty keyboard and a touchscreen. The other type of phone is a "smartphone" they run on OS's such as SymbianOS and Windows Mobile Standard. All of the mobile versions of Windows are created by Microsoft first as a generic OS. From there, the phone manufacturers must develop drivers for each individual phone. Then applications get added at the manufacturer's discretion. When this is finished, the phone's OS should be completely functional and ready to ship. Some phones are shipped with this "original" OS installed, while others are shipped to major cellular carriers where they will make further customizations to the OS such as carrier specific programs and, in many cases, a bunch of bloat-ware.
To find a current example of what I just described above, do a search on the "HTC Kaiser (P4550)" and compare it to the "ATT Tilt (8950)" Good luck with your thesis :up:

[v0dka]

Thanks for your help guys. :up: