Symbian. Windows Mobile. Palm. Blackberry. OSX. Android. Maemo.

These are all mobile operating systems (OS). Some have been around longer than others. The new kids on the block are OSX and Android, and they are having their day. While Palm is an old platform, the complete revamp that has been executed on the OS has transformed its hitherto dated interface into something hip and up-to-date, just as obtains on the newer kids.

Symbian, the world’s most widely used mobile OS, has also undergone a revamp with the S60 5th Edition, but with not quite an elegant result as Palm. I have been “Symbian Inside” for the most of my mobile life, having used S80 (Nokia 9500), UIQ (P990, P1i) and S60 (E61, E61i, E90, E75) devices for years.

I have not hidden my position that Symbian as it currently is needs a serious facelift of its user interface to get up-to-date with current fads in the industry. I have even held that position strongly. But there seem to be those who think that Symbian is actually going to die off. I seriously doubt that. At least not anytime soon.

If what Nokia has pulled off on the N900 tablet-phone is anything to go by, those who have prophesied Symbian’s death because of what seemed Nokia’s inability to implement a fancy user interface can start recanting. Nokia has shown that they are capable.

We must note that the current fancy user interfaces are touchscreen based. Unfortunately, unless there is a massive change in the general direction of mobile users, the statistics till date shows that the majority of users prefer regular type phones with a physical keypad. In this field, Nokia still holds the fort.

I submit that Symbian is likely to remain the dominant mobile OS for a long time. Current trends suggest that Android will take the 2nd place quickly.

One of the advantages that Symbian has is what will help Android achieve this feat. Both Symbian and Android are licenced by numerous manufacturers, some of which are adding layers of services, functionality and usabilty to the underlying operatiing systems.

Already, we have multiple Android devices from HTC, Motorola, and Samsung respectively on the ground. More are on the way from Acer, Sony Ericsson, LG and others.

The other operating systems are generally mono-products – the iPhone which runs OSX is manufactured by only Apple; Blackberries are manufactured by only RIM, and Palm devices by only Palm.

The only other widely licensed mobile OS is Windows Mobile. The recently launched Windows Mobile 6.5 is a good upgrade, but leaves much to be desired. Hopefully, version 7 will bring this venerable OS up-to-speed and then we can see how things go from there.

One thing that is unarguable, however, is that exciting times are ahead in the mobile OS field. Whatever operating system you root for, the months and years ahead promise much.

Many years back, it was enough for consumers that a phone could do everything including clean the kitchen sink. But somewhere along the line, something changed.

What changed was that the consumers began to appreciate the value of a polished and user-friendly interface above raw power and features. And they’ve been voting with their money ever since.

Gone were the days when phones simply sold based on what they could do. Now, it seems the paradigm shift has occurred, and consumers are saying, “It is not so much about what the phone can do, but how enjoyable it is to use the phone”.

In case you still doubt this, the iPhone could do much less than most phones in its bracket could do. For crying out loud, it was missing several features that millions of phone users had taken for granted year in, year out. Why would anyone want to purchase such a phone?

Surprise! The iPhone has sold at an incredible rate! Why? While it lacked several standard features, the user experience on the iPhone is currently second to none, and consumers are voting – with their money.

Never mind that this “crippled” device costs twice as much as many other phones that out-gun it in terms of raw features and capabilities.

The same story is repeating itself to different degrees with Android, TouchWiz (Samsung), and TouchFLO 3D (HTC), and lately S-Class (LG) user interfaces.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a user interface and user experience revolution going on. Geeks can argue specifications from daybreak till sundown, but the mass market is clamouring for great user experiences for their money.

One of the beautiful things about the Symbian S60 OS (operating system) is that it is an open OS platform for mobile phones. By open OS platform, I mean that the OS allows for applications developed by a 3rd party to be run on the platform. These (third party) applications can now be installed onto a phone powered by the OS to either improve functionality or add a new function altogether to the phone running on the OS.

I must say here that the Symbian S60 OS is not the only open platform available. There are obviously others, like Windows Mobile, Android, etc. In order to install applications for any of these OS you must get applications that are compatible with them. Even within a particular OS community, there may exist different versions and care must be taken to ensure that the application being installed is compatible with the particular version of the OS in view.

As I mentioned in the second part of my review, the Nokia 5800 is powered by the Symbian s60 5th edition OS. Nokia says the 5th edition has backward compatibility with 3rd edition. In other words, applications that work on s60 3rd edition should also work on the 5th edition.

As such, after I got my 5800, I set out to install my favorite applications from the 3rd edition. It wasn’t long before I discovered that only a few of the applications developed for 3rd edition actually work on the 5th edition. In fact a majority of the applications that were really useful to me do not work. On launching such apps, the phone simply freezes and it has to be rebooted to get it working again. I hope this is not what Nokia meant by backwards compatibility.

It is not uhuru yet for Symbian s60 5th edition devices, so don’t go expecting all your old applications you used on the E71, E90 or N96 to work on your 5800 just yet.

Thankfully, a few developers are beginning to develop applications specifically for the 5800 and I hope that in the near future there will be more than enough applications for s60 5th edition.