For the growing number of companies that view mobile applications as a strategic priority, the question arises: which is the best operating system platform on which to develop or deploy mobile applications? The main contenders are: Symbian, the operating system used on many smartphones, including those from Nokia; Research in Motion's BlackBerry; and Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

We'll start in this article with a closer look at RIM's BlackBerry platform.

Some analysts will tell you the war for the palmtop is already won, while others say it has a long way to go. But even if one platform ultimately dominates, the losers are unlikely to go away anytime soon.

"There is a battle," says the always contentious Ken Dulaney, vice president of mobile computing at Gartner. "But I think at this point the game is over. Microsoft has won."

Dulaney concedes that market share data has yet to reflect Microsoft's ascendancy. The data shows either RIM or Symbian in the lead, depending how you define the market, "But our job is to say where we think it's going," Dulaney says. "And what we see from our customer base is that that's where it's going."

Yet his colleague William Clark, vice president of research for wireless and mobile at Gartner, believes we're still only in the early stages in the war for the palmtop. While the arrival of Windows Mobile 6 later this year may propel Microsoft into the lead, Clark believes many enterprises will delay making an exclusive choice, and probably should.

"If enterprises are considering making an investment today," Clark says, "they had better plan on [there being] diversity for quite some time."

Nathan Dyer, Yankee Group's analyst for the enterprise mobility group, is inclined to agree. "I think the market is big enough to accommodate three, maybe four leaders," Dyer says. He includes Java as a leader, even though it is not a standardized platform like the other three.

Still, Microsoft is the horse to beat, Dyer says. "The onus is on [the others] to keep up with Microsoft, even if they have greater market share today." That applies to RIM, the most successful mobile e-mail platform, in spades. Indeed, it may have the most to lose.

Dulaney says RIM has done a good job developing a strong platform and concedes that customers are generally pleased with their BlackBerry systems. But one glaring weakness he sees in the platform is that it's effectively available only on hardware from RIM. Companies that choose Windows Mobile or Symbian will have a choice of many hardware vendors.

RIM has licensed its software system to other hardware manufacturers under the BlackBerry Connect program, but Dulaney calls the program "a disaster." Hardware partners don't get the latest versions of the software, he says, and as a result can't compete effectively against the RIM devices.

Dyer too praises RIM, but also has reservations. "It's supported by the most U.S. cellular carriers," he points out. "It's a very secure platform, optimized for a great mobile experience. And one pro in the U.S. is that it has the largest installed base of smartphones and PDAs of any platform."

The one con, Dyer says, is that RIM doesn't have a very large developer community, and not many pre-built applications are available.

This is a criticism analysts have been leveling at RIM for a few years, but Jeff McDowell, the company's vice president of global alliances, takes issue. RIM has two developer programs, McDowell explains. One provides software resources, online white papers and basic technical support. He claims there are tens of thousands of registered users.

A second program, running since 2002, is designed to forge closer relationships with partners willing to make a major commitment to the BlackBerry platform. It provides in-depth assistance to developers, including a dedicated business development manager at RIM, an assigned engineer to help with technical issues at every stage in development, and a RIM marketing manager responsible for helping the company market the product to the BlackBerry community when it's ready.

This alliance program has attracted 500 companies so far, including significant players such as Antenna Software (field sales and service intelligence), Pyxis Mobile (financial services industry) and Wallace Wireless (business continuity). McDowell claims that most of the alliance partners are developing exclusively or mainly for the BlackBerry platform, and that some that started out as Pocket PC (Windows Mobile) developers have now switched to BlackBerry.

The alliance program is growing quickly, which would suggest that it's helping to advance the BlackBerry cause in the advanced mobile applications arena. The number of developer partners almost doubled year over year between 2006 and 2007.

One reason for this, McDowell will tell you, is that BlackBerry is a superior platform, and makes the job of writing applications easier for developers. Key platform strengths: push technology, end-to-end encryption, device-level network management and RIM's relationships with many North American and overseas cellular carriers.

The push technology, developed originally for e-mail, allows an enterprise to send messages to BlackBerry devices as soon as they arrive at the company's mail server, without the user having to request it. With the BlackBerry platform, companies can also push corporate data to advanced applications running on the handheld. Business intelligence applications can push out the latest sales data, for example. Business continuity applications can push updated procedures, escape routes and contact lists.

McDowell says BlackBerry is the only mobile platform that extends push capabilities to advanced applications. Microsoft does now offer a push experience with e-mail on the Windows Mobile platform, although RIM contends it's not "true" push because it uses a "poke and pull" technique involving VPN. But the push capability does not extend to other applications under Windows Mobile, he insists.

The end-to-end encryption developed by RIM for e-mail will be crucial in almost all advanced applications. No company wants to risk customer data, for example, or emergency procedures falling into the hands of competitors.

"BlackBerry allows developers to focus on business logic and functionality," McDowell says. "Not which VPN to use, or how to manage cell phones, or how to get data [to phones]. The BlackBerry platform comes with all those problems solved."

He also takes issue with the notion that just because many companies are already using Microsoft tools and platforms for developing desktop applications that they will automatically adopt Windows Mobile for advanced wireless applications. That would suppose that RIM's installed base of customers - it has 8 million subscribers worldwide and 80,000 BlackBerry servers deployed - will abandon the platform.

"The customers we have today tell us that if the functionality is not there, they're not going to use a platform [Windows] just because it happens to be their desktop platform of choice," McDowell says. "Once they do a security audit, or once they do a manageability audit and find out they can't manage devices, can't turn off a device, or wipe it [remotely], the fact that…the incumbent toolset [is used for development] means nothing."

Those customers and new ones will ultimately choose the platform that offers the best functionality and the lowest cost of ownership, he says. And that's BlackBerry.

Gartner's Clark backs up many of McDowell's arguments. "RIM has intense customer loyalty," he notes. "And it has the best developed end-to-end system. It's encrypted, it's very manageable, and it has a low total cost of ownership. RIM is great if you're looking for a system with pre-built connectors."

But Clark adds, "If a software developer wants to translate what he's done on the desktop [to the mobile environment], then Microsoft is a no-brainer."

So which will developers value more: desktop portability or functionality and total cost of ownership? The jury is still out.

In the meantime, what about Symbian? We'll find out in Part III.