
This is part three in a five part series. Click here for part one. Click here for part two.
Microsoft was a heavyweight in the computing and browsing markets when it entered the handheld world. Like its desktop operating system, Microsoft has multiple versions of its embedded OS, under such monikers as Windows CE, PocketPC, Portable Media Center, Windows Mobile Classic, Windows Mobile Professional, and Windows Mobile Standard. In this manner, Microsoft had an OS for every taste. Compared to this, Research In Motion (RIM) positing the BlackBerry hardware and with its one operating system seems to be contrary, yet RIM maintains the enterprise market share for handheld devices.
Part III: RIM BlackBerry
Where Microsoft attempted to take its desktop knowledge to the handheld world, RIM started in the handheld world and "worked its way up". While originally focused on embedded systems, RIM hit the jackpot with the BlackBerry and Good devices.
Like Windows Mobile and unlike Palm OS, the BlackBerry OS is multithreaded, allowing for multiple applications to run at the same time. Most applications written for the BlackBerry are in C++ and Java, though for some underlying capability applications must be digitally signed with a trusted certificate authority, which can put a barrier to more sophisticated applications for hobbyists.
C++ and Java are very open, and with Eclipse or NetBeans, tools and addons exist that support rapid application development. Java's Mobile Edition in particular has a rich subset of the common Java libraries, similar to how the .NET compact framework assists in producing sophisticated applications for Windows Mobile, including its cryptographic and socket libraries. Additionally, all BlackBerry models utilize Trible DES or (more recently) AES for wireless communication a priori, saving the developer the trouble of encrypting and decrypting data sent over the wire(less).
For a while, RIM and Microsoft split the smartphone/enterprise handheld market, but tomorrow we will visit the system that was predicted years before it came out, and still exceeded expectations, taking not only a large share of the enterprise market, but the consumer share as well.
Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

