Applications – the Apple iOS edge: Though the Android platform can today boast about 'Android marketplace' app-store, which can be downloaded free of cost, and which has over 200,000 third-party apps, the fact that Android does not use established Java standards (Java SE and ME), makes many of the apps incompatible on various Android platforms. This is where Apple iOS has a lead. Apple's app-store gives you a choice of more than 350,000 iOS apps (as of April 13, 2011), which are all compatible on all iPhone versions. And to give you an idea of how popular the iOS is due to the sheer power of applications, about 9.13 million apps are downloaded from the app-store every single day. No surprise that iPhone users today account for 59% of mobile web consumption in US & Canada. If it's media, it's iOS. Make no mistake.

Multi-tasking smartphone – the BlackBerry trick: For a fixed rental, which allows you access to free, secure messenger service, push mail and unlimited data access over the Internet, for office goers, there is no better choice than RIM's BlackBerry. While we can ignore the universal appeal of BlackBerry (the handset can be used on almost every carrier in the world, about 500), what is amazing about the BlackBerry is its multi-tasking capability (the OS allows users to launch multiple apps in the background and quickly switch between them). This is one area where any 32 MB model of BlackBerry (released in and after the year 2005) scores heavily over the iPhone (which only grants limited multi-tasking, and every time the user wants to return to the homepage, the running app must be closed). So, while you are answering a given email on a BlackBerry, you can simultaneously chat on your Yahoo! messenger & Gchat, without having to close the email app. In other words, you can comfortably run a SSH application simultaneously with the web browser, while using more than one live running chat application and browsing the Internet. What's better, the BlackBerry device can be synchronized to multiple computers simultaneously, unlike other devices.

As far as the Symbian OS is concerned, it is suited for those looking for average quality of 'everything' in a non-smartphone OS – including software bugs. Truth be told, Symbian is already on its way down the pipe, after Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft to use Windows Phone 7 as its main smartphone platform. On one hand, while this partnership with Nokia is expected to boost Windows based smartphones market share to 11% in 2011 (which will fall, given Microsoft's failure to deliver on the mobile OS platform in the past seven-eight years), on the other hand, this will allow Nokia to fully concentrate to turn MeeGo into an OS for the ultra low-end devices. Surely, with OS development for smartphones (which is really the future of mobility) being handled by Microsoft, Nokia can perhaps concentrate on even making an optimal 'Symbian+MeeGo' OS for low-end offerings. So all in all, allow us to say that Symbian OS should be a choice, only if you are looking for non-smartphones. For everything else, there are other superior options available in the market. [And if low-price be the sole criteria, there are adequate number of offerings in the Indian market that will fit your bill.