Android vs. Maemo: Again

Touchscreen Smartphones have become massively popular since Apple introduced its iPhone.

In the last year or so, many touchscreen devices have come into the market. The growth of smartphones has led to development of better mobile operating systems.

Android vs Maemo - One on one

There is no doubt that Linux will be the dominant player in the mobile market by the end of 2010. This is namely thanks to Google's Android OS, which has been appearing on more handsets than I can count the past few months. Android however is not the only mobile Linux operating system (however it is easily the most popular) that exists. I have done more than a few posts about my Nokia N900, which is another mobile device that runs a variation of Linux known as Maemo.

I recently came into possession of an Android powered device of my own and as I such I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. For the last week I have retired my N900 to the back seat and had my SIM card inserted in my Android powered Kaiser just to see how Google's mobile operating system handles itself in comparison to Maemo. I am going to compare and contrast the two on the following key points:

Nokia N9 first hands-on! (update: video)

The N9 has arrived. Functional units of Nokia's long-awaited MeeGo smartphone have finally landed into our eager hands and we've got a gallery of images to provide you with below. What we can say from our first experience is that we're in the presence of a fantastically designed device with a gorgeous AMOLED screen and some highly responsive performance. Hold tight as we're updating our fuller impressions after the break, where you'll soon be treated to our first hands-on video with the Nokia N9.

IN DEPTH: IOS VS ANDROID VS WEBOS VS MEEGO

Pitting iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo doesn\’t appear like a fair fight.

It’s akin to putting a couple of our TechRadar writers in a boxing ring with the Klitschko brothers. With Apple\’s iPhone/iPod/iPad OS, Google\’s Android, plus the Symbian, Microsoft and Blackberry platforms, do we truly need any more pretenders to the mobile OS throne?

Yes – due to the fact \’competition drives innovation\’ (or so the saying goes). Android improvements will make iOS much better and vice-versa. Whilst lower-league operating systems will have to work harder to stand out, they\’ll assist to make sure that the massive two do not get complacent.

And yes again – simply because beyond the smartphone battleground, the next big tech confrontation is about to be fought on tablet devices.

It\’s not just a straight iPad vs Android face-off, either. HP is prepping a very good-searching \’PalmPad\’ running WebOS, and Nokia is looking to show off its mobile expertise in a MeeGo-powered tablet.

Let\’s see how the four mobile platforms compare.