How many mobile app platforms are there?

[Seymour Clufley]

I know of Android and the iPhone. What others exist?

[Kiffi]

I know of Android and the iPhone. What others exist?

Windows CE
Windows Mobile
Windows Phone
WebOS
Symbian
....

Greetings ... Kiffi

[Progi1984]

BlackBerry

[GWarner]

Zune HD

[Seymour Clufley]

Blimey. And all of these are platforms for which you can compile apps?

[the.weavster]

Blimey. And all of these are platforms for which you can compile apps?

Yep, mostly using C++ though I'm afraid.

Nokia are planning to use the Qt framework across the board for their hardware (MeeGo & Symbian): http://qt.nokia.com/products/platform/symbian/

Samsung have created their own developer's api called bada: http://developer.bada.com/apis/index.do

Palm (now owned by HP) have WebOS which you can develop for using JavaScript/CSS/HTML: http://developer.palm.com/

Motorola have just purchased Azingo so they'll no doubt have their own api & sdk soon.

HTC have just purchased Abaxia so that may well be a first step for them going the same route.

And unfortunately it looks like (with the possible exception of Nokia) they are all going to take the walled garden approach that's been so successful for Apple. Users will only be able to install apps that are available from the manufacturers own app store.

I guess companies that don't manufacture their own hardware (e.g. M$ & Google) are going to find it increasingly hard to find a platform to run their kit on. If smart-phones, tablets and net-books continue to become more and more popular and start to take over from desktops / laptops we're all going to end up with a lot less freedom.

[utopiomania]

What others exist?

Too many, but ANDROID is the one that will rule them all.

Here's (one reason) why: BASIC for the smart-phone market

[the.weavster]

Here's (one reason) why: BASIC for the smart-phone market

That project seems to be at a standstill though. It's a real shame, it would be ideal wouldn't it?

This looks quite interesting: http://www.glbasic.com/

[utopiomania]

Yes it would be ideal.. But about your link, is that for programming phones??

[the.weavster]

about your link, is that for programming phones??

I haven't tried it but it claims you can compile for Windows Mobile and the iPhone (and some quite cool looking Linux based gaming device).

I'm going to give GLBasic a try when I get some free time.