Hybrid Mobile App's - Ongoing Mobile revolution

Quite after a long time come up with a post on one of the Current trend on Mobile Application Development , Hybrid Mobile Applications.

“Hybrid” applications are a special category of web applications that extend the web-based application environment through their use of native platform APIs available on a given device. The hybrid application design pattern is equally applicable to both mobile and desktop environments.

Hybrid mobile apps are like any other apps you’ll find on your phone. They install on your device. You can find them in app stores. With them, you can play games, engage your friends through social media, take photos, track your health, and much more.

How are hybrid mobile apps built?

Hybrid mobile applications are built in a similar manner as websites. Both use a combination of technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. However, instead of targeting a mobile browser, hybrid applications target a Web-view hosted inside a native container. This enables them to do things like access hardware capabilities of the mobile device. These are capabilities that are often restricted to access from inside mobile browsers.

What are the motivations to go hybrid?

Hybrid mobile applications provide a way for developers to re-use their existing skills in web development. Developers don’t like the prospect of getting locked into proprietary platforms. This includes the programming languages and SDK's provided by platform vendors. Hybrid mobile application development looks appealing to an organization’s bottom line. Why hire a developer for each platform when you can hire one developer and target all of them through HTML, CSS, and JavaScript? Well, the reality is a bit more complicated. Yes, it’s true that hybrid mobile application development enables developers to target more than one platform. However, each platform comes with a set of caveats when it comes to its web run-time or Web-view. This is especially true with Android, which is inconsistent between OS versions. Moreover, there might be unique capabilities of platforms to which a developer may wish to target. In those instances, a combination of plugins and platform-specific code must be utilized in order to take advantages of those capabilities.

When should you build a hybrid mobile app?

Before committing to a platform strategy, it’s important to evaluate the technical and non-technical merits of hybrid versus alternatives like web and native – especially as it relates to your mobile application’s requirements. For example:

• Which mobile platforms do you wish to target?
• Do you want to distribute your application via app stores?
• Are you looking to utilize the capabilities of the mobile device?
• What are the technical abilities of your development team?
• Does the one-size-fit-all approach of hybrid really live up to its promise?

These and other questions are worth asking before embarking upon development of a mobile application. To elaborate on this, let’s examine a few of these questions in more detail.

• WHICH MOBILE PLATFORMS DO YOU WISH TO TARGET?

If you wish to target more than one platform, you have a number of choices. Clearly, the web offers a highly attractive solution for this requirement. Your target is the mobile browser. Hybrid lends itself well to this approach as well because of its reliance upon the WebView.

Native – on the other hand – finds itself in a unique space. If you are reliant upon the vendor SDKs and platform-specific programming languages then you are essentially coupled to the platform. In the case of iOS, it’s Objective-C or Swift; for Android, it’s Java; and for Windows Phone, it’s C#.

• DO YOU WANT TO DISTRIBUTE YOUR APPLICATION VIA APP STORES?

If you want to distribute your application via an app store, you must build a hybrid or native application. You cannot distribute websites through app stores; that’s what your browser’s address bar is for! Despite this restriction, whether you build a hybrid or native application, it’s highly recommended that you have a website available for your mobile application. This will be the first place your users will expect to go if/when they encounter problems.

• ARE YOU LOOKING TO UTILIZE THE CAPABILITIES OF THE MOBILE DEVICE?

Websites have a restricted set of abilities as opposed to hybrid and native applications. These restrictions are enforced by browser, effectively sandboxing it away from the mobile operating system. Recent developments with mobile browsers have exposed more device capabilities through HTML5 such as the camera, geolocation, and others.

Despite these advancements, support for advanced functionality is quite limited. For example, media capture and streaming remains unsupported in various mobile browsers. Because limitations like this remain in mobile browsers, many developers are compelled to evaluate hybrid and native as alteratives. Both offer the ability for developers to access device APIs – in the case of hybrid, this ability is supported through plug-ins.

It’s often asserted that native is best suited for applications where graphics performance is paramount. Mobile games are a class of mobile application almost entirely reliant upon complex visual interactions on the screen. Even if a game operates flawlessly from a functional perspective, you should expect it to have a very low app store rating if it feels slugglish. For that reason, developers have long-argued against using hybrid as an approach to build games.

That stated, a number of solutions for hybrid mobile applications exist. These include HTML5 Canvas and WebGL, both of which are well-suited for building applications like games. Furthermore, technologies like these are more approachable for developers through libraries like Paper.js, EaselJS, and others. And it’s not just for game development. For developers building more traditional, line-of-business applications, there are frameworks like Famo.us and Kendo UI.

• WHAT ARE THE TECHNICAL ABILITIES OF YOUR DEVELOPMENT TEAM?

Another factor to consider when evaluating your development options for mobile is your team’s technical abilities. If you decide to build a native application, you will require developers who are experienced with the platform SDKs and programming languages of every platform you wish to target. On the other hand, web and hybrid applications are built using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can have a team that can target multiple platforms with a single set of technologies. This is something worth considering when evaluating your opinions.

Key Characteristics of Hybrid Apps

Unlike web applications or mobile websites, which the user can access by browsing to the URL, hybrid apps are typically installed through an app store and are available through the platform application launcher. This means users have to follow the same procedure to install hybrid application, as they would have for native applications. The platform will ask users to grant device access permission upon installation.

NOTE

There is a lot value in developing platform-specific UIs, and you may eventually want to do it once your application usage crosses a certain threshold. Having said that, it should be relatively straightforward in the case of hybrid applications using CSS.

Why Developing Hybrid Apps Makes Sense

Hybrid apps have the unique ability of reaping all the benefits of traditional web applications without many of its limitations.
The benefits of hybrid apps compared to native include:

Faster time to market

Building a hybrid application is typically faster and requires highly reusable standards skills. It does not involve a tedious learning curve when compared to native programming languages.

Inexpensive cross-platform development cycle

Hybrid apps have cross-platform compatibility, reducing the footprint of native code needed, resulting in more reusable HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript that can be shared and deployed across platforms with minimal adjustment. This is primarily because WebKit is the platform of choice across all major mobile phone OSes today. Cross-platform development cycles also help keep the cost associated with development and testing under control. The reusability of HTML code allows developers to achieve a “develop once, deploy many” architecture. Native apps on the other hand would require developers to perform full-feature test rounds for platforms on which the application is being developed.

Abundant human resources

Hybrid apps are built with web technologies, which means that there are many web developers who have the base skill set to build mobile apps.

Cost of maintenance

Maintenance costs are usually lower because one does not need to rewrite (port) all application code to the native language of each device platform. Further, since the skill set to develop hybrid apps is readily available, scaling of a development team is also a nonissue.

Approval process

Most of the app stores do have an approval process for which each app has to qualify before it can be made available through the sales channels of that app store. Because hybrid apps can be updated outside the bounds of an app store, you can typically get away with one submission to the app store. Once you are approved, you can push subsequent updates independently through your server if you like. A key point to note however, is that a fresh submission of the application would be required every time you make changes in the native code associated with the hybrid app.

Hybrid apps are the future

Looking toward the future and upcoming advancements in mobile OS technologies, one can easily argue that hybrid apps are the future of development. Windows Phone 8, Google announcements to eventually merge Chromium OS and Android, Tizen OS, and Firefox all hint toward a hybrid future, not too far away, and hence, building and deploying hybrid apps is strategically a right thing to do.

The benefits of the hybrid apps compared to mobile web include:

Access to device capabilities

As mentioned in the introduction paragraph, hybrid apps offer the unique opportunity to reap all the benefits of traditional web applications without many of their limitations. Hybrid apps can extend the JavaScript environment to access the native APIs and capabilities of the platform that are not available through the generic web browser environment otherwise, for example, true offline storage, as well as access to contacts and other media on the device.

Unavailable new platform features

Hybrid apps can take advantage of the new features that are available in the new SDKs. However, you will have to develop and expose that native layer using plug-ins or a framework, which is usually the boilerplate code in most cases.

Distribution through app stores

Hybrid apps are distributed through app stores just as native apps are. You discover, download, and install them, as you would a native application. Therefore as a developer, you can leverage an existing well-established channel for content, app discovery, and monetization.

Offline access and execution

Hybrid apps, like native apps, can be run locally on the device when the device is offline—i.e., it is not connected to any network.

The possible drawbacks of hybrid apps as compared to native apps include:

Performance

You may experience potential performance issues because JavaScript is fundamentally single-threaded, which means that only one operation can be performed at a time. However, if done right, you can come up with a solution wherein you can offload background tasks to a native thread, which would execute in parallel while your app is busy performing UI operations. The native thread would then notify the JavaScript of the events and task completions/failures.

Differences in cross-platforms

WebKit is not equally maintained in all mobile platforms, which means that there might be indistinct differences between renderings and platform-specific features to watch out for, though one could arguably say it is a better scenario than rewriting all code from scratch. Further, this is such a well-understood topic that often you would find material describing ways to identify and mitigate these UI experience risks.

Unavailable advanced features

There might be advanced features that cannot always be easily implemented on the hybrid layer—for example, OpenGL-based rendering—however, the set of features is rapidly shrinking with companies like Microsoft, Google, and Mozilla introducing a bunch of new standards aimed at bridging this gap.

Inconsistent user interfaces

Platform-specific UIs’ look and feel might be seriously difficult to mimic using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The possible drawbacks to the hybrid apps compared to mobile web include:

Not accessible via website

A user is required to find your application in a native app store and cannot access it via a traditional web browser unless you’ve made one available.

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Under 30K - Godgifted Laptops

Hi friends, not having a huge budget to buy a laptop doesn't mean you have to settle for an inferior experience. We help you pick up the best possible laptop under Rs. 30,000.

                       The trend that we noticed was that most of these queries were regarding machines under Rs. 30,000 or around the same price band. Clearly, for a lot of first time buyers and also those who are on a strict budget, this is the most important price segment as far as Windows notebooks are concerned. But equally, we also sense some misconception and confusion in the consumers’ mind. And with the help of this article, we will attempt to solve that.

Look for the OS: In the hunt for the best prices, most consumers don’t realize that they may end up sacrificing a bit more than would be ideal. Among these compromises, the biggest one is that of the OS. For a price difference of around a few thousand, you get a machine with a preloaded OS, and one without. Without doubt, we will always recommend buying a machine with Windows 8 preloaded, over one with plain DOS and the headache of getting an OS later, a process you will have to undertake.

The processor generation: For less than Rs 30,000, it would be very hard to imagine getting a machine with an Ivy Bridge or even a Sandy Bridge Core i3 processor. What you get are the much older Intel Pentium dual core processors. Or, you have the option of the much newer AMD dual core and quad core APU’s. Between the two options, you are better off with the newer architecture, better power delivery and improved battery life that the AMD APUs offer.

The keyboard: An affordable laptop doesn’t mean you have to deal with a flimsy machine, with the biggest sacrifice coming in the form of a compromised typing experience. The best way to test this right there at the store is to actually type out a document on Windows Notepad, and see how comfortable you are with the layout. Second, press down at the middle of the keyboard - this will give you an idea of the flex or the dip the keyboard may suffer from. The newer HP and Asus keyboards have a different design, with the keyboard sitting on a metal base which makes it a lot more precise and stable.

Now that you have been warned about what to look out for, here are some worthwhile options that you need to consider, if you are in the market for a machine in this category. The machines listed here are in accordance with the price set in ascending order.

Acer Aspire V5-121
 Approx Market price: Rs. 24,500

This is a machine that panders to the newer trend of smaller 11.6-inch displays, which is gaining popularity. This display size, with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels is the balance between usability and portability, which is one of the reasons why buyers prefer it. The V5-121 is powered by the AMD A68M dual core 1GHz power package, with a 256MB AMD Radeon HD 7290 graphics chip and 4GB of RAM. The machine packs in a 500GB hard drive, and comes preloaded with Windows 8. No shortage of connectivity options either, with two USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port. Windows 8 comes preloaded on this device, and we believe it is the best option at this price.

Lenovo Essential G505 (59-387133)
Approx Market price: Rs. 25,500

If the 11.6-inch screen isn’t for you, then the 15.6-inch (1366 x 768 pixel) screen that the G505 will probably be a better bet. It also gets the AMD A68M dual core APU clocking at 1GHz with the AMD Radeon HD 7290 graphics, 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive. There is one USB 2.0 port, and two USB 3.0 ports. What you will not get is a proper gaming experience on this display and with this power package in the machine, but what you will get is a smooth daily usage routine that will work seamlessly.

Fujitsu Lifebook AH532
Approx Market price: Rs. 28,000

You will notice that as you go higher up the price band, the better the specs become. The Lifebook AH532 is one of the rare machines with a Sandy Bridge series Intel Core i3 processor with 4GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M (1GB) graphics chip. The storage also gets bumped up with a 750GB hard drive, and no shortage of USB ports with 1 USB 2.0 port and 3 USB 3.0 ports. What you will have to live with is the slightly thick design and rather basic looks, but the 15.6-inch (1366 x 768 pixel) LED display just adds value to the overall package.

HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11-e006AU
Approx Market price: Rs. 30,000

Okay, so we are at the very edge of the price limit. And there is pretty much the delight in store with the TouchSmart 11 notebook from HP. You get a more powerful AMD A4-1250 dual core APU with 4GB of RAM and the AMD Radeon HD 8210 graphics. But, this is...wait for it...the real bonus - the 11.6-inch display (1366 x 768 pixels) is a 10-point multi-touchscreen, complete with Windows 8 pre-loaded on the machine. HP has also packed in DTS sound, which does make this a bit of an improvement over the sound experience from the rivals. At just 1.3kg, the TouchSmart 11 can be carried around with ease, but the best part is the modern design and the materials used give it a much more expensive look. Again we will mention this - this machine has the best keyboard by far. You will have to compromise with a smaller display size, but we tested this machine recently and the battery life was rather impressive.

HP Pavilion 15-n006ax
Approx Market price: Rs. 30,000

For those of you who would not like to compromise on the power and the performance, then you need to consider the HP Pavilion 15 notebook. This gets the AMD A4-5000 quad core 1.5GHz processor along with 4GB of RAM. The 15.6-inch display isn’t a touchscreen, but with the AMD Radeon HD 8670M (1GB) graphics, this will be able to handle a bit of gaming. This is an excellent keyboard, if typing out articles is your source of livelihood! The HP is a tad on the heavier side, at 2.2kg, but brilliant build quality in line with HP’s new design theme and premium materials used.

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Shaping The Future With Big Data: Are We Playing With Fire?

The urge to be mobile and make a mark is as old as mankind. Ancient tribes moved around guided by stars, sent sound signals and left their ‘selfies’ on cave walls with colorful palm prints. Today we use GPS to get where we’re going, communicate on a variety of devices and are so obsessed with visuals that it would take an individual more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2018.
Sharing and generating all this information has led to a new era shaped by a phenomenon we call big data. It’s not easy to explain what big data is, or more important, how companies try to manage it so that it’s useful for business purposes. SAP’s head of Platform Solutions, Steve Lucas said in his interview between two schnitzels that the best way to manage data is by developing cloud applications that allow you to run your business from a mobile phone. Simple, right?
What’s different now?
The big difference between data then and now is that before, only humans created and collected data as they went about inventing more and more things and ways to make life easier. With the rise of sensors and other technology that creates and collects data, humans are no longer the center of the data solar system, creating everything, but are just another node in an increasingly autonomous data universe. In an article published in the The Human Face of Big Data, Esther Dyson points out that the big in big data is about self organization. Without our awareness, data is organizing itself, mostly following human rules but without human intervention, acting more like the immune system than the nervous system ruled centrally by the brain. So what?
This means that while we may be able to observe the data around us, there is still much we don’t understand. Just as ancient people lacked knowledge about bacteria and its impact on health, we lack knowledge about how billions of objects really interact with their own virtual presence and identity, sending data they collect to other devices to coordinate common activity and making decisions humans are not even aware of.
Are we playing with fire?
Humans have always tried to model and shape the natural world and sometimes have lost control, leading to disasters and destruction. Think loss of habitat, the extinction of many species, or the change in climate and its impact around the globe. There are many lessons to be learned about messing with nature; the most important one is taking responsibility for the outcome. With big data revolutionizing what it means to mess with something humanity has never known before comes a new responsibility, because the purpose of managing data is not to predict the future but to shape it. And that’s a huge responsibility.
Rising to the challenge
Using technology that provides insight into data, today’s business leaders have a unique opportunity to make thoughtful decisions that will have long-lasting impact. A century ago no one could foresee how the automobile would become a ubiquitous mode of transportation that changed the world. Changes took place slowly in an evolutionary manner, unplanned and unmanaged, brought about by technological advances that led to safer and more reliable cars on one hand and messy traffic and massive ecological problems on the other.
Evolution hasn’t stopped! Connected cars are already here, and driverless, sensor-based cars are coming.  In the new world, people will rely on service providers to get around and won’t need to own cars. There will be no need for car dealerships, insurance, or parking. There will be no car accidents, no speeding tickets, and entirely different energy sources. Data in the new, connected network will autonomously ‘drive’ us safely to wherever we are going.
This kind of transformation has far reaching implications on the entire ecosystem and our lifestyles. Innovative companies within the automotive ecosystem are already analyzing data to help them understand what needs to be done in 5-year chunks, so they can transform from an automotive
company to a ‘mobility company’ using sustainable practices.
Disruptive changes like that are happening in every industry around the world.  Will today’s leaders rise to the challenge of shaping the future in a responsible way? Let’s not just be another node in the data universe.  Let’s leverage our tools and technology to better understand the data around us and use it to make a difference.
This article was originally posted at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2014/07/10/shaping-the-future-with-big-data-are-we-playing-with-fire/

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King of the Mobile OS - A Analysis

The Analysis looked at over 1000 parameters to compare Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone in terms of usability and features in order to arrive at a winner.

How do you determine what makes a good OS? What makes iOS vs. Android or Windows Phone vs. BB10, or any other such comparison not just about the fanboyism? Is it even possible to arrive at a scientific conclusion to this question? If we look at entire eco-systems, Android and iOS are obvious choices for buyers because of the sheer amount of apps they have available. However, what’s that got to do with an answer to the question, what’s the best designed OS out of the box? 

How they compared

So how do you go about “testing” or “comparing” OSes? For one, we couldn’t run benchmarks, because that’s a test of hardware running an OS and not really a test of the OS itself. What we really needed to do was to break down the functions of a mobile OS into components that highlight a particular use case and rate the ability of the OS on its ability to handle that task. 

So how do we use our phones the most these days?

· ●  Browsing to find content to read and research

· ●  Good old email to communicate for work and personal reasons

· ●  Messaging / texting people, obviously

· ●  Customising our phones to be exactly as we want them to be, and thus we gave importance to settings and not just what was possible but how easy it was to find what we wanted

· ●  Managing contacts and the dialler to call and keep in touch, link contacts, etc

· ●  Photography, obviously, as we now click more pictures with smartphones than dedicated cameras, but not just clicking, sharing, editing, etc.

· ●  Notifications, and being alerted and updated about what’s happening, and the control you get over what you're notified about

· ●  The lock screen of our phones (which some claim will be the most important screen going forwards) as it’s the real summary of what’s happening as soon as we look at our phones

· ●  Searching for things (on or off the phone), because we can't live without search these days, but more importance to on the phone searches. 

· ●  Videos that we capture, edit and then want to share with friends

Are these the only ways we use our phones? Of course not, some of us may find creative uses for phones, such as using them to read long Tolkien tales, or as a brick to throw at someone (shameless exaggeration), but we’re focusing on the rules here and not the exceptions. As those of you wondering about social media and “sharing”, don’t worry, absolutely every parameter or use case where you would want to “share” something, was looked at under each individual category. So, for example, you want to share a picture you just clicked on all your social media accounts, we’ve considered that under photography, etc.

Once we’d decided what we needed to look at (which basically covers over a thousand individual features or settings in each of the OSes), we then proceeded to segregate each and every setting / feature into one of the 10 categories mentioned above.

The Results

Android 4.4.4 (3rd Place)

In our minds, and, we’re quite sure, in most of your minds as well, Android was the winner even before we began testing. It seemed such a blindingly obvious winner, given that its plethora of apps and the thriving developer community. Unfortunately (for Android), this test is looking at the design of the OS rather than the popularity of the platform and in that regards, stock Android is surprisingly lacking. Perhaps it's a leave it to the apps philosophy, but out of the box it's a little underwhelming when compared to the competition.

Let’s consider universal search for example. One would expect an OS that’s being mentored by Google would have the best overall search experience of them all, but it’s just not as good as you would expect. Both iOS and BB10 do better than Android when it comes to search functionality (internal phone search) and beat it by a large margin. How large? Well, believe it or not, more than double Android’s score!

The default Android Search tool doesn’t search through SMS, calendar entries, E-mail and much more. Those who are used to Android probably won’t even notice it because you didn’t know that it was even possible, but for those migrating from other platforms, especially BlackBerry, this would be a glaring omission.

The same can be said for photography as well. The new “Android Camera” app is a huge disappointment and nowhere near as feature-rich, and in-effect, as functional, as the camera apps on other platforms, BlackBerry and Windows Phone included. Again, remember this is a comparison of the camera software, not hardware, so don't shoot off angry mails about how your camera clicks better photographs than any other platform.

What does it do right? For one thing, Android 4.4.4 features the most feature-rich mobile browser that we’ve had the pleasure of using. While it does lose out on something as convenient as Safari’s Reading List feature, it’s syncing features are incomparable; iOS does manage to come a close second though.

Something else that Android does well is customisability, which was to be expected, but there were issues here as well. Stock Android is simply not as customisable as one would expect. Simple things like customising your quick settings are just not present. You can, of course, just ignore stock Android and jump to CyanogenMod or some other such ROM, but the true customisability of ROMs such as that are something we’ll be looking into later.

Overall, Android manages a distant third, a full 8 points behind our winner and just barely 1.5 points ahead of Windows Phone in fourth.

iOS 7.1.2 (2nd Place)

To be completely honest, we’ve always respected Apple for what they’ve done with iOS as a platform, but the full extent of the work that they’ve put into the OS was largely ignored by many of us and we really didn’t expect the OS to fare as well as it did. The price for their phones in India kind of turns us off, truth be told.  

The big shocker was notifications. iOS didn’t have real notifications a couple of iterations ago (iOS 5) and now all of a sudden we discover that it has the best implementation of a notification system across all platforms. It’s the subtle design decisions that make this possible, the indicator on the icons, location-specific reminders, the ability to allow repeated calls to notify you even when night-mode is enabled and so much more. None of the other OSes even came close to providing such a degree of information and customisability.

Interestingly, the default camera app in iOS is quite awful in terms of manual control. One might argue that the iPhone 5s has an amazing camera and that it probably doesn’t need as many fine-grained settings as the camera app on a rival, but as we've said before, this is about the OS and not the hardware. Plus, what happens when the same camera app is on a lower specced iPod Touch or older iPad? You might want some extra controls on those to tweak your pictures.

Search is another area where iOS shines and while it still isn’t as good as BlackBerry’s native search functionality, it was still more than enough to take the second place in our tests with a very healthy score of 75%. Way ahead of Android (35%) and just 10 points behind BB10 (85%).

iOS suffers badly in two departments – managing contacts and customisation. When it comes to contacts, the dialler is very basic and just seems to deal with contacts as an after-thought, unlike the more integrated approach used by just about every other mobile OS. Customisation is another sore point with this OS because it simply doesn’t let you change a lot of the default behaviour.

iOS manages to bag the second spot with its excellent notification system, good browser and excellent search functionality.

BlackBerry 10.2 (1st Place)

The underdog takes the crown. The BlackBerry 10.2 OS is undoubtedly the best designed mobile OS out of the box that’s currently available in the market. We were stunned by the result and to be honest, we delayed sending the magazine to print a day just to recheck everything. BlackBerry’s been behind the times for some time, if we're honest, and BB10 was supposed to be the game-changer. Quite frankly though, most people haven't given the OS much attention. While we’re not arguing the justification for that disdain, it’s quite clear that the OS deserves much more attention than it actually receives.

Now BlackBerry OS 10.2 (10.2.1.2977 for those who want specifics) has, by today’s standards, a very lacklustre browser – lacking even basic sync functionality, a messaging app (SMS) that’s also very basic, and that’s it. Those were the only real downsides to the OS. The browser itself is not terrible, and gets most things done, but with a whole range of other features being offered by the other platforms, somehow quick rendering and a reader mode don't make up the gap. 

BlackBerry OS 10.2 boasts of the most feature-rich search engine, an e-mail and contact management system that’s second to none, and is also surprisingly more customisable than we thought it would be, and also offers a good photography and video capture experience.

The sheer functionality offered by the OS, out-of-the-box, just cannot be ignored. Once you complete the initial setup, the device is perfectly capable of performing just about any and every task you would expect from a phone, and then some.

Take the search functionality, it truly is a universal search. A function that scans every bit of data on your phone, including browser history, e-mail and SMS conversations and much more. No other OS in our test was capable of performing these actions. In effect, the search is so effective that BlackBerry OS 10.2 walks away with scores that indicate it to be more than twice as good as Android’s implementation. Only iOS managed to come even close to BB10’s performance in this department.

E-mail was another area where BlackBerry OS 10.2 outshone every other OS (we expected this one). However it was the margin of victory (a score of 83.2, which is a full 30 points ahead of Android’s gmail app) that surprised us a little. The reason for this massive performance difference lies in the way the OS deals with e-mail. While the others are content to leave e-mail management to an app, BlackBerry OS 10.2 integrates e-mail into the OS, making it as native to the platform as a dialler is to a phone. This lends the OS some distinct advantages, particularly when it comes to managing multiple accounts and search, courtesy of the “Hub”.

Anyone who’s used a BlackBerry device knows that it’s a device that places communication first and entertainment second, and that comes across very clearly in our tests. Entertainment options, which would include the browser, photography, etc., are functional components and powerful enough to not give the average user cause for complaint. At the same time, the communication modules are so well designed and integrated into the OS that they far outstrip the competition and place this OS as the clear leader out of the box.

Windows Phone 8.1 (4th Place)

Windows Phone placed last on our test and it’s actually a little difficult to pin-point the problem. The OS is not bad really, it does perform all the actions you would expect an OS to perform in the sense you can send and receive calls and SMS, manage e-mail and even includes a notification drawer with quick access settings.

The real problem, as far as we can judge is that the OS does everything that you expect it to, but it just doesn’t do those things as well or as efficiently as other OSes. It does handle contacts and messaging better than almost every other OS (excluding BB10) courtesy of its People Hub, but that’s the only thing we can really say about it.

In essence, Windows Phone needs more exclusivity and focus than People Hub to outshine the other three.

There’s more to come

What we’ve given you so far is just part one of this quest of comparing OSes and their variants. With refreshes of all of these OSes coming soon, new OSes such as Ubuntu Phone, and even newer Android variants such as on the Amazon Fire Phone, the OnePlus One, Xiaomi Mi 4 and so on there’s still loads of work to be done.

Score Sheet
OS	Android 4.4.4	iOS 7.1.2	BlackBerry 10.2	Windows Phone 8.1
Browser	66.28	61.8	40	50.47
E-mail	53.07	46.6	83.2	44.93
Messaging	36.6	43.2	34.2	60.2
Settings and Customisation	55.48	40.09	53.21	45.13
Contacts and dialler	51.25	40.33	62.33	58.28
Photography	43.9	47.24	55.13	54.05
Notifications	29.4	69	36.7	29.2
Lock Screen	55.8	51.2	48.78	37.2
Search	35	75.3	85.3	54.7
Video	32.72	38.6	46.76	22.56
Final Overall Score	48.44	52.1	56.91	46.68

You may also give your suggestions in comment section regarding this analysis taken by Digit.

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