iOS (previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Originally released in 2007 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, it has been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPad and Apple TV. Unlike Microsoft's Windows Phone (Windows CE) and Google's Android, Apple does not license iOS for installation on non-Apple hardware. As of September 12, 2012 (2012 -09-12), Apple's App Store contained more than 700,000 iOS applications, which have collectively been downloaded more than 30 billion times. It had a 23% share of the smartphone operating system units sold in the first quarter of 2012, behind only Google's Android. In June 2012, it accounted for 65% of mobile web data consumption (including use on both the iPod Touch and the iPad). At the half of 2012, there were 410 million devices activated. According to the special media event held by Apple on September 12, 2012, 400 million devices have been sold through June 2012.

                                                              

Android is the world's most popular mobile platform. With Android you can use all the Google apps you know and love, plus there are more than 600,000 apps and games available on Google Play to keep you entertained, alongside millions of songs and books, and thousands of movies. Android devices are already smart, and will only get smarter, with new features you won't find on any other platform, letting you focus on what's important and putting you in control of your mobile experience.

Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and like its predecessor, it features the interface known as Metro (or Modern UI).

Windows Phone 8 replaces its CE-based architecture used on Windows Phone 7 devices with the Windows NT kernel found on many Windows 8 components. Current Windows Phone 7.x devices cannot run or update to Windows Phone 8 and new applications compiled specifically for Windows Phone 8 are not made available for Windows Phone 7.x devices.

Windows Phone 8 devices are manufactured by Nokia, HTC, Samsung and Huawei.