In the past three years we've seen a number of new smartphone operating systems burst onto the scene. From Apple's wildly successful iPhone OS, to Google's increasingly popular Android and Palm's praised yet still floundering WebOS -- to name a few. Microsoft is no stranger to the market either, but just recently the company took a radical departure from its previous business-centered strategy and unveiled what looks to be a potentially solid contender in the consumer space: the Windows Phone 7 Series.
All of them are characterized for powering a new generation of touch-driven, fast and feature-rich devices that evermore seem to be turning into pocket-sized computers. The fact that three of the most significant companies in desktop computing -- Apple, Google and Microsoft -- now stand to occupy the same positions in mobile is a clear indication of where the industry is going.
Others like Nokia and RIM have arguably been a bit slower to adapt to the latest trends -- or have preferred to focus their efforts on a particular niche -- but still command an undeniable large portion of the cell phone market. Like them there are also a number of big-name industry players peddling their own platforms and hardware, including Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Toshiba, HTC and LG Electronics.
In this edition of our Weekend Open Forum we want to know what kind of device you are currently using. Have you jumped into the smartphone and mobile app craze? Are you more of the business user type? Or perhaps you are comfortable with anything that can make a simple phone call? Feel free to share what you love or hate about your current hardware and mobile platform, as well as any plans for your next purchase.
