A mobile is set to do the functionality which is embedded in it at the time of its manufacturing. The software which is embedded in it is known as software or firmware. A common mobile phone can not perform any functionality beyond the scope of that firmware. The firmware is designed and developed by the manufacturing company and is distinct for every model of the mobile phones.

But in the modern mobile phones, which have more sophisticated operating systems support the installation of the third-party software. This is just like computer that a computer can perform some basic functionality but in order to get some additional functionality, some third-party softwares are installed.

Different Mobiles and Supported Softwares

Usually the software developed for one model of a mobile phone won't work on the other but the developers who develop the software make slight changes in the software so that they can run on the other models too. Also different companies may have their mobile phones based on different technology and firmware; therefore one particular software has to be developed for different platforms. Like one model of mobile phone can run java software on it, but the other is based on Symbian technology. Consequently the company will have to develop their software for both the platforms.

There is a format which provides the user to access all the functionalities of the handset, this format is called BREW. As this format allows full access to the functionalities of the handset therefore its development process is modified mainly by the software vendors. It is freely available but to run the software on the mobile hardware a digital signature is required which can be obtained by tools issued only to mobile phone manufacturer. This free kit is known as BREW SDK (Software Development Kits). To download this software (even after one gets the digital signature) on regular phone the software is tested by the Qualcomm (developers of BREW) with the help of their TRUE BREW testing software.

A Look on Available Third-Party Softwares

Nowadays there is a huge variety of softwares available for any given handset. Some of the softwares are free (freeware), others will have to be bought to use them. There are softwares available for every type of mobile users. For people who want to stay in touch with internet there are browsers and instant messenger clients available. There are a lot of games available which do not let you bore in your leisure time. For business professionals and students there are document viewers and editors which can let you use documents created in Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Office. For the artists and designers there are image viewers and editors. And some softwares are simply developed to be used for fun.

Mobile Games

Mobile Games have the biggest share in the softwares that are developed for the mobile phones. Mobile games are developed using platforms and technologies such as Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian OS, Macromedia's Flash Lite, Sun's J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition, recently re named simply 'Java ME'), Qualcomm's BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless). Other platforms are also available, but they are not so common.

Java was initially the most common platform for mobile games; however its performance limitations have led to the adoption of various native binary formats for more sophisticated games.

Mobile softwares have simply enhanced the functionality of the mobile phones many folds. They make a dull device very interesting and useful.