Mobile operating system share of operating systems. However, variations occur in popularity by regions, while desktop-minority also applies on some days in regions such as United States and United Kingdom. Mobile operating system milestones mirror the development of mobile phones and smartphones: These operating systems often run atop baseband or other real time operating systems that handle hardware aspects of the phone. Android (based on the modified Linux kernel) is a mobile operating system developed by Google Inc. Besides having the largest installed base worldwide on smartphones, it is also the most popular operating system for general purpose computers (a category that includes
Windows Mobile increased to 3.5 million in the same quarter the following year. Windows Mobile saw year over year growth between 2005–2006 of 38.8% which according to Gartner "helped Windows Mobile to solidify its stronghold on the market". But by 2008, its share had dropped to 14%. Microsoft licensed Windows Mobile to four out of the world's five largest mobile phone manufacturers, with Nokia being the exception. Gartner research data showed that while the total smartphone industry grew 27% between 2008 and 2009, Windows Mobile's share of the smartphone market fell 2.7% in that same period. It also decreased by 20% in