100 Interesting Facts about Wimbledon Championship

Wimbledon is considered to be the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. It is the oldest Grand Slam tournament that is played on grass, the original surface of tennis game. With its rich history and regal traditions, the wimbledon tournament has a popular following all across the globe. If you are a fan of Wimbledon, these facts and figures will hold great importance for you. You would love these interesting and curious facts about Wimbledon that you may not have known about the event. Read on to explore interesting facts of Wimbledon Tennis Championship.

Below is the list of Wimbledon Facts with collection of 100 interesting facts about Wimbledon in this article.

1. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club was founded in 1868.

2. It was originally just the 'The All England Croquet Club', Lawn Tennis was introduced at the club in 1875.

3. Wimbledon always starts on the sixth Monday before the first Monday of August.

4. Wimbledon starting dates for the next 3 years are: June 18, 2012; June 24, 2013; June 23, 2014.

5. First Played in 1877, the tournament featured Men's singles play. It was then followed by Women's singles and Men's Doubles in 1884; and Women's Doubles & Mixed Doubles in 1913.

6. The first singles event at Wimbledon was won by Spencer Gore in 1877.

7. Maud Watson became the first ladies' singles champion in 1884.

8. The first foreign champion at Wimbledon was May Sutton of U.S.A who won the ladies' singles in 1905. Norman Brookes of Australia became the first non-British gentleman's champion in 1907.

9. The men's singles champion receives a silver cup with a pineapple top. The ladies' champion recieves the "Venus Rosewater Dish", also made of silver.

10. All players participating in the tournament have to wear white clothing.

11. Anna Kournikova was ordered to change in 2002 when she was caught practicing in black shorts.

12. The 2006 guide for competitors was updated to warn players that they risked being defaulted if they broke the tournament's code of almost entirely white and most certainly decent clothing.

13. The Chair Umpire for the match decides whether players are dressed appropriately.

14. The Duke of Kent, Prince Edward is the President of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

15. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is on Church Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 5AE.

16. The tournament is third on the Grand Slam calendar, and is played in the months of June and July.

17. Apart from the five main events (men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, mixed doubles), there are four junior events and four invitation events

18. John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played the longest tennis match at Wimbledon in 2010. Isner won 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7-9), 7-6(7-3), 70-68, in a match that lasted 11 hours and five minutes. The match was played over three days.

19. Willie Renshaw and Pete Sampras (7) have won the most number of singles titles. Amongst the ladies, Martina Navratilova has nine "Venus Rosewater dishes" in her kitty.

20. The last British man to win Wimbledon was Fred Perry in 1936. He was a three-time Wimbledon champion.

21. The last British woman to win Wimbledon was Virginia Wade in 1977, after sixteen tries.

22. Bjorn Borg became the first player in the Open Era to win the gentlemen's singles title five times in a row. Roger Federer has duplicated the former's feat by winning the title from 2003-2007.

23. Goran Ivanisevic was the first wildcard to win the singles title in 2001.

24. At 17, Boris Becker was the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon in 1985.

25. Todd Woodbridge (9) has won the most number of doubles titles at Wimbledon. He won six titles with Mark Woodforde and three with Jonas Björkman.

26. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played the longest final in Wimbledon history in 2008. The match lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes.

27. American Bill Tilden won the Wimbledon singles title at the age of 38

28. Eating strawberries and cream is a tradition at Wimbledon. 28,000 kilos of the fruit and 7,000 litres of cream are consumed at the tournament.

29. Strawberries that are served at Wimbledon are sourced from Kent, and are picked just a day before.

30. 312,000 bottles of water were consumed, along with more than 14,000 bottles of champagne, at Wimbledon in 2002.

31. Althea Gibson was the first African-American to win Wimbledon in 1957

32. Chris Evert was the last married woman to win Wimbledon in 1981.

33. Venus Williams' serve at Wimbledon 2008 was recorded at 129 mph, the highest by a female player at the tournament.

34. In 1995, Tim Henman was suspended from the men's doubles event after he struck a ball girl with a ball in anger.

35. The area used to watch Wimbledon matches on a giant TV screen in the All England Club grounds is referred to as "Henman Hill". Since Tim Henman's retirement, it has been renamed as Murray Mound after British No.1 Andy Murray.

36. Goran Ivanisevic won Wimbledon as a wildcard in his fourth final in 2001. He was the runner-up in 1992, 1994 and 1998.

37. The practice of bowing to the royal box was stopped at the insistence of the Duke of Kent in 2003.

38. The first official colour broadcast in the UK was that of Wimbledon in 1967 on the BBC.

39. The All England Club issues debentures to fans to raise funds for its expenditure. Investors are given match tickets in return.

40. In 2009, a retractable roof was added to Centre Court to prevent rain delays

41. Wimbledon is special because it is the only Grand Slam played on grass, the original surface of tennis. Let's not forget that the game was originally referred to as lawn tennis.

42. Matches in the gentlemen's singles and doubles are best-of-five sets. The rest of the events are best-of-three sets.

43. Wimbledon begins on a Monday and ends on a Sunday.

44. American legend Andre Agassi skipped Wimbledon on a few occasions because of the dress code. He refused to play Wimbledon from 1988 to 1990 because of the all-white dress code and what he regarded as the stuffy atmosphere.

45. Since 1877, Wimbledon has been halted twice by the World Wars. They lost four years during WWI, and six during WWII. No championships were held between 1915-1918 and 1940-1945 because of WWI and WWII.

46. Martina Hingis was the youngest player to win a Wimbledon title, when she won the doubles title in 1996.

47. A film titled 'Wimbledon' starring Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst was released in 2004. The story was about a struggling British tennis player who wins Wimbledon in his swansong.

48. Ball girls were first seen at Wimbledon in 1977.

49. The year 1986 saw yellow balls being introduced at Wimbledon.

50. Wooden rackets were last used at Wimbledon in 1987.

51. Wimbledon is played on grass courts made of rye grass.

52. Wimbledon 2011 is the 125th edition of the tournament.

53. Venus Williams fought for equal prize money to be paid to female winners. In 2007, the All England Club announced the change.

54. At 15, Charlotte Dod became the youngest woman to win Wimbledon in 1887.

55. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament where fans without tickets can queue up and get seats. Fans are known to queue up overnight for tickets.

56. The US has provided the most number of winners at Wimbledon. American players have won 33 men's singles titles and 54 women's singles titles.

57. Wimbledon is the oldest Grand Slam tournament that is played on grass.

58. Centre Court seats 13,813 people and the Club grounds hold 34,500 spectators.

59. The highest recorded attendance was also in 2001, with 490,081.

60. The highest recorded attendance for normal 13 days was also in 2001, with 476,711.

61. The highest recorded attendance for a single day was in June 26th, 2002 with 42,457 visitors.

62. Court 2 is nicknamed "The Graveyard", because this is where many seeded players are knocked out.

63. Media operation at Wimbledon are conducted out of the Millennium Building, and play host to a press corps of over 750 journalists and photographers from around the world.

64. Two of the most highly held traditions of Wimbledon are the rule that the players must wear predominantly white, and that the players are referred to as "Mr", "Mrs" and "Miss".

65. The Ladies' Singles Trophy is a silver salver, 18 ¾-inches in diameter, referred to as the 'Rosewater Dish' or 'Venus Rosewater Dish'. It was first won by the Champion when the challenge round was introduced in 1886.

66. The Men's singles trophy is a silver gilt cup and cover, standing 18-½ inches high and has a diameter of 7-½ inches. It is inscribed "The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World." The lid is shaped with a pineapple on top and a head covered with a winged helmet beneath each handle. There are two decorative borders with floral work and oval styled moldings on the bowl of the Cup and on the handles.

67. The Gentlemen's Doubles Championship trophy is a silver challenge cup, which was presented to the All England Club in 1884 by the Oxford University Lawn Tennis Club who sponsored the original doubles play in 1879. The Gentlemen's Doubles was played at Oxford University from 1879-1883 but moved to Wimbledon in 1884.

68. The Ladies' Doubles Championship is an elegant silver cup and cover, known as 'The Duchess of Kent Challenge Cup', presented to the Club in 1949 by HRH the Princess Marina, President of the All England Club.

69. The Mixed Doubles Championship trophy is a silver challenge cup and cover presented to the All England Club by the family of the late S.H. Smith, who won the doubles title in 1902 and 1906.

70. Since 1949 all champions have received a miniature replica of the trophy, measuring 8 inches tall or 8 inches in diameter.

71. During World War II, a bomb ripped through Centre Court at the All England Club and 1,200 seats were lost. Fortunately, they were not filled at the time! Play finally resumed in 1946 but it wasn't until 1949 that the area was back in shape.

72. Wimbledon moved to its present site in Church Road in 1922.

73. The 1973 tournament was beset by a players strike which saw 79 players including 13 of the 16 seeds withdraw because Yugoslavian player Nikki Pilic was suspended. This left Jan Kodes, the new number two seed, to take the Gentleman's Singles Championships that year.

74. The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum was first opened in 1977. In 2006, the museum received a multi-million pound state-of-the-art transformation, making it one of the most popular tourist sites around London.

75. Over the years, assorted streakers have graced the courts. In 1996, a young woman wearing only a tiny apron dashed across the court just before the final between Richard Krajicek and MaliVai Washington. In 2002, a self-described "serial streaker" enlivened the rain delay during Lleytons Hewitt's three-set victory over David Nalbandian in their final. And in 2006, a streaker performed a cartwheel on Centre Court during the quarterfinal between Russian beauties Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva.

76. One of the most popular items at Wimbledon is the £10 easy-grab telescopic green and purple umbrella. It's second only to its larger cousin, the £20 spectator umbrella.

77. When the rain comes, the translucent cover is pulled out. It was first introduced onto the Centre Court in 1998, and weighs 1 ton - wet and dry. It takes 17 people 30 seconds to cover the court.

78. Wimbledon Number 1 Court has large fans at either end to dry them out in case of rain.

79. Years when play extended into a third week due to rain delays: 1919, 1922, 1925, 1927, 1930, 1963, 1972, 1973, 1982, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001.

80. Years with no rain at all: 1931, 1976, 1977, 1993, 1995.

81. IBM is the technology partner for Wimbledon.

82. Over 1,000 statistics are collected simultaneously for every match on the 18 courts, for every point, during every match, in real time for the IBM Real-Time solutions and Scoreboard.

83. The Championships used Hawk-Eye line calling for the first time in 2007.

84. Yellow balls were used for the first time in 1986 to make the speeding balls more visible for television cameras, due to pleas from BBC producers that white simply wouldn't do.

85. Slazenger has provided every tennis ball for The Championships at Wimbledon since 1902. All Slazenger balls are produced in one facility in The Philippines.

86. Wimbledon places an order for 5,000 dozen (60,000) Dunlop Slazenger balls, for use in the roughly 680 matches during the Wimbledon Championship. Only about 1,250 dozen of these balls are actually used in the tournament. The rest are sold on the grounds as souvenirs.

87. The Royal Box is used for the entertainment of guests from the Royal Family as well as the tennis world, including supporters of British tennis and other walks of life.

88. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles have not attended the Wimbledon event since 1970.

89. Guests are invited to the Clubhouse for lunch, tea and drinks at the end of the day. The guest list is released on the same day, for security reasons.

90. Men are asked to wear suits or a jacket and tie. Ladies are asked not to wear hats, as they tend to obscure the vision of those seated behind them.

91. The shortest person to play tennis at Wimbledon was Miss C.G. Hoahing who was just 4 feet 9 inches.

92. The tallest competitor ever was and is Ivo Karlovic, at 6 feet 10 inches.

93. In 1996, Martina Hingis won the Ladies singles titles and was 15 years, 282 days old, when she won the women's doubles with Helena Sukova of Czech Republic.

94. The youngest male champion was Boris Becker who won the Men's singles title in 1985 at 17 years, 227 days.

95. The youngest ever player at Wimbledon was Mita Klima of Austria, who was 13 years old in the 1907 singles competition.

96. The youngest seed was Jennifer Capriati at 14 year 89 days at the time of her first match on 26 June 1990. She won the match, making her the youngest ever winner at Wimbledon.

97. The oldest champion was Martina Navratilova at 46 years, 8 months young when she won the Mixed Doubles title in 2003 with Leander Paes.

98. Venus Williams became the second African American woman to win the Grand Slam title at the 2000 Ladies singles title. She followed a childhood hero, Althea Gibson, who won titles in 1957 and 1958.

99. 1949 was the best ever year (weather-wise) for Wimbledon when there was sunshine during the entire championship.

100. 1976 was the hottest year on record at Wimbledon, with temps reaching to 34°C (94°F)

Some words on networking

What is Network?

A network or communication network is a system of interconnected communication devices that can communicate with one another and share information. Therefore computer network can be defined as:

'A system in which more than one computers or large number of computers are interconnected together, communicate freely with one another and share information is called computer network.'

A network can be internal to an organization or span the world by connecting itself to the internet. In computer network, network operating system is used that controls and co-ordinates the activities of computers that are connected to the network. The example of these operating systems are: windows NT, UNIX, and Novell etc.

Types of Network

Networks are of three types. These are:

• Local Area Network (LAN)
• Wide Area Network (WAN)
• Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

Local Area Network

A local area network is a network system in which computers are interconnected in a limited geographical area, such as network of computers in college computer laboratory or network of computers in office building etc.

Have an efficient networking with data center virtualization solutions to provide seamless operation.

Wide Area Network

A wide area network is a network system that covers a large geographical area such as different cities of country or different countries of the world. In WAN telephone lines, satellites, microwave, fiber optic etc. are used as transmission media.

Metropolitan Area Network

A Metropolitan area Network is a network system that covers area of a single city. Usually, MAN connects more than one LANS in a city or town and covers a smaller geographical area than a WAN. The cable television, telephone companies or local corporations use MAN.

How to Create a VPN Connection for Free

VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a technology used to create secure connections in a public network like Internet.It often requires a username and password to connect to  a VPN.The data transferred in VPN is encrypted and the connected computers acts as if they are on same secure, local area network.Now you can connect to VPN for free and surf Internet securely.

How to Create a VPN Connection for Free:

• Download proXPN Wizard (its free). Click here to download.
• Once the Downloading is complete, open it and click on the Next button.

• Accept the License agreement to continue with the installation process.
• Now  installation will start. Be patient while the installation is underway. It may take some time.

• Once the installation is complete click on Finish button
• Now the proXPN login window will be open. In this click on Don’t have an Account.

Your default browser will automatically get opened.. Click on the No Thanks, I want a proXPN Basic Account.

• Give your Email Address and password and then click on Create an Account.
• A confirmation will be sent to your Email Address. Open your Account and click on that link.
• Now your proXPN free Account has been created. Just go back to the installed proXPN login window and login with your Email Address and Password.

• After this click on the Connect button. If everything goes fine then you will see a Green button in your System Tray.

That’s it! Now you are surfing safe and secure on the internet.

Internet Error Codes and Meaning

 

Sometime you are browsing the internet and trying to open any website, your e-mail and any FTP sites , but you see different error codes there. You should be familiar with these error codes. You can solve these problems if you are well-known with the meaning of error codes.

Error Codes Meaning

400 This is bad request error, First check you may be typing wrong URL name and server could not understand your request.

401 You are trying to open any unauthorized access site or page. Check your username and password if you are trying to open any webpage.

402 Payment Required Error

403 You are trying to open any forbidden page and you are blocked by that domain.

404 Here you are trying to open the webpage that was removed or re-named, also check the URL spelling.

408 This is time out error. you should send the request with in time that the server set for you.

Smartphone OS Comparison

There was a time when buying a smartphone was easy. You had a couple of platforms and a handful of models to choose from. Things have changed a lot today. You now have over half a dozen platforms out there with hundreds of different models between them, priced very close to each other. It doesn't help matters when several phones are identical to each other but simply running a different brand of operating system.

You can decide what features you want in your phone but what about the operating system? There is no way you can choose between them looking at the spec sheet alone. Being in a position where we get to use all the latest smartphones on all the different platforms, we think we have answers to your operating system related questions.

What follows is a brief comparison of the top four smartphone platforms - iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7 and Symbian ^3 - where we try to find which one is the best, ultimately narrowing down your number of options while buying and helping you choose better.

Aesthetics

iOS is the oldest of the four platforms here. Even though it is four-and-a-half-years old now and has barely undergone any major UI makeover, it still looks great. The UI design has a sense of timelessness to it and no matter how many times you look at it it does not look boring. Apple has also designed it in a manner where it is out of your way most of the time so that you can concentrate on your applications. This means there are no unnecessary animations and transition effects and whatever little is there looks natural and is functional.

Android on the other hand has gone through considerable changes since its first iteration and has only got better with age. Having said that, over the years it has lost some of its simplicity and picked up some UI design elements that seem overdone, such as the 3D image gallery or the live wallpapers, which serve no functional value whatsoever and just consume resources for meaningless eye candy. This behavior is at odds with the usual Google way of designing things, where functionality takes precedents over attractiveness. Still, overall it is an attractive OS and although it lacks the timeless beauty of the iOS or the contemporary look of Windows Phone 7, it manages to look pretty good. Too bad you rarely get to see the real Android below the custom skins.

Symbian ^3 borrows the basic UI design of its predecessor and improves upon it. Despite that the end result is not something that one would call modern. You can see the roots of the operating systems, such as the soft keys at the bottom of the screen that were necessary for devices with buttons and a scroll bar for when there was no kinetic scrolling. It does not look bad per se, but it is not in the same league as others. Luckily, it is skinnable, so you can give a new look to it with a custom skin, although don't expect to make a swan out of a goose.

The latest entrant into the world of smartphones, Windows Phone 7 took the world by surprise when it was first announced, partly because no one expected Microsoft to come up with something that was so fresh and modern. The beauty of the UI design on Windows Phone 7 is unlike anything that you have seen before on other smartphones.

Unlike other operating systems here, especially Android, which borrowed heavily from iOS initially for their UI design, Microsoft came up with something that was completely original and yet incredibly good looking. So good is the UI design that most people would be seduced into buying a Windows Phone 7 device based on the look itself.

Ease of use

Designing a good looking interface is one thing. Designing a good looking interface that is also easy to use is another and no one does this better than Apple. If you don't believe us just search online for videos where kids are given an iPad or an iPhone and within minutes they manage to figure out the basics.

In our experience iOS has turned out to be the easiest mobile operating system, where everything was so clear and obvious that anyone who used it for the first time, regardless of age, could figure it out without having to refer to a manual. The reason for this is that it does not assume that the user knows how to use it and because of that you can go around doing basic things without any help. It is incredibly intuitive and makes you wonder why others haven't figured out a way to make their software work this way. It feels as if it was designed with regular human beings in mind, not robots or geeks. We loved the keyboard especially.

Next in line of intuitiveness is Android. It does not have the same level of simplicity as iOS, were you can detach you brain and still manage to work the interface, but it is still very easy nonetheless. Unfortunately, you would rarely get to use stock Android on every phone you use, which means if you are someone who's not a geek and are used to, say, an HTC Android phone, you will be lost when you pick up a Samsung Android phone.

So even though Google and the OEMs try to make the UI user friendly, the fact that there are so many different types of them is bound to leave a layperson confused.

Using the early versions of Symbian S60 5th Edition was as much fun as amputating your arm with a dull blade. The UI was designed for phones with keypads and Nokia had done little to ensure that it was usable, if not a pleasure. That's not the case with Symbian ^3, however, which feels miles ahead in terms of usability.

Things now work the way they should and there is no longer a doubt in your mind whether clicking something will just highlight it or launch it. We still don't like the way the applications are scattered across the menu and the on-screen keyboard could have been better. But overall the latest version of Symbian is pretty user friendly, and unlike Android, you don't have to worry about different interface layouts on different devices.

Windows Phone 7 may look great but it isn't the best when it comes to user friendliness. There are some things that aren't immediately apparent, such as the way you have to press and hold on certain items to display additional options. Then there is also the quirky behavior of the search button or the tiny call/end keys and the need to unlock the screen before you can receive a call. But more than anything, it's the lack of basic features such as multitasking and copy-paste for text that really makes things difficult for the users. We do love the keyboard though, which is on par with the keyboard on Gingerbread and almost as good as the one on iOS.

Features

Features was never a strong point of iOS, but over the years Apple has added a lot of functionality to the OS, such as the ability to install applications, multitasking, copy-paste, folders, etc. iOS today leaves very little room for complaint. However, there are some things that Apple is yet to take care of such as Bluetooth file transfers, file manager, mass storage, homescreen widgets and FM radio to name a few, but we have a feeling none of these will ever be addressed.

Fortunately, Apple does add additional functionality with every major firmware upgrade but more often than not these are limited to newer devices, whereas the older ones get the short end of the stick.

Android's biggest advantage over iOS has been the features and with the latest release Android has almost every feature that you could want, whether it is multitasking, widgets, tethering, Wi-Fi hotspot or Adobe Flash support. It feels the most complete out of all the four platforms here in terms of features, and if features are all that you are looking for then you would be happiest with Android.

When it comes to features, Symbian ^3 is no slouch either. You will find almost every feature here that you get on Android, along with some that you don't, such as FM radio and USB On-the-Go connectivity. You even get multiple homescreens (three, to be exact) and widgets for them, which are very handy. Features like multi-tasking and copy paste, something others have just discovered and others are yet to, have always been part of Symbian since the first iteration several years ago and have been executed perfectly. Symbian ^3 has most of the features that you would want and there wasn't anything that we felt it should have that it didn't.

This is one aspect where Windows Phone 7 fails miserably. For an operating system launching in 2010, Microsoft has left out some pretty major things. Although they are saying they will eventually incorporate most of them through updates we feel they should have had them from day one. While it was excusable to leave out on those things back in 2007, Microsoft has no such excuse, considering they were in the smartphone business even before Windows Phone 7. It does have some good features, such as the homescreen tiles, Xbox Live support, Zune pass and Office integration, but we don't think that will be enough to compete against the rivals.

Performance

When iOS first came out, it wowed the world with its fluid interface that ran perfectly even on the modest hardware of the first generation iPhone. Over the years the OS has become heavier and the proof of this is the way the iPhone 3G struggles with iOS 4.0. But try the same OS on an iPhone 4 and you will notice a world of difference. The UI is silky smooth throughout with no noticeable sluggishness. Even when switching between multiple applications, the UI maintains its smoothness without faltering.

Something similar has been observed in case of Android. As long as you provide it with fast hardware, it runs fine but tends to choke on slower devices. However, unlike iOS, even when running on faster hardware, Android is never perfectly smooth. At times you will notice unexpected and inexplicable slowdowns while going through the UI, which deters from the overall experience. Google has also added unnecessary eye candy to the UI, which also tends to bog down devices with less than perfect hardware.

Also, Android does not use the GPU to render the on-screen images, which means the CPU is overburdened, causing further slowdowns. Still, with some optimization, Android can be made to work pretty well on slower devices.

One of the greatest strengths of Symbian is that it has always been a very light operating system that could be run even by weaker hardware. This is why all the Symbian phones have hardware that seem less impressive than what we are used to seeing on high-end devices, but that is absolutely fine as even on that hardware the OS runs perfectly well.

Since the OS is so light, it removes the need to unnecessarily jack up the hardware and burn more battery in the process. This is why Symbian phones have the best battery life among smartphones. Nokia has also made good use of the on-board GPU to render all the on-screen images, leaving the CPU free to handle other tasks.

When it comes to UI smoothness, Windows Phone 7 is unbeatable. That's mostly because it is always sitting on powerful hardware, but also because the OS is well optimized for it. This is another good example of the kind of performance you get when you know what the weakest device your software would work on and then optimize it accordingly.

This is also why Android does not work well on low-end devices. The UI of Windows Phone 7 is so smooth, it gives you the illusion of moving physical objects around instead of UI elements, an illusion that Android fails to maintain, thanks to the occasional stutter. Unfortunately, the smoothness is only limited to the default applications as third-party applications could not live up to the same standards that Microsoft has set. We have seen Android developers come up with smoother applications even though they had no idea what phone their application would be running on. We hope things get better in future as these applications are updated.

Applications

This is one area where iOS pulls out a massive lead ahead of all the other platforms here. Being around the longest has certainly benefitted it and there are millions of applications available on the App Store right now waiting to be downloaded. Granted that more than half of them are not worth a second look but there are some really brilliant apps here. In fact, the general quality of applications available is the highest among all the smartphone platforms. Some of these apps have truly revolutionized the way we use our smartphones and in a way that not even Apple would have imagined when they made the iPhone. If apps are all you care about more than the device, then iOS is the platform to be on right now.

Although Android is fast catching up with iOS in terms of number of applications, we have failed to come across truly compelling apps that would sway us in favor of the Droid. Most of the great apps on Android are already available on iOS and the remaining ones are Google's own apps. There are very few great apps or games that are exclusive to Android right now. Sure, things would change down the line and once everyone realizes that Android is the better platform to develop for, considering there are no strict restrictions to follow unlike on the App Store, people would eventually make a move towards Android.

With Android already outselling iPhones in the US soon everyone would want to develop for the OS with the most number of users. Right now though, things aren't that great as such and if it's apps you want you should be looking at iOS, not Android. Also, remember that even if tomorrow Android Market does get all the great applications that does not mean they will stop making them for iOS.

There was a time when people boasted about the number of applications that Symbian has. Although it does have one of the best libraries of applications available in terms of sheer numbers, a lack of application store meant it was difficult to have access to them. Now that Nokia has the Ovi Store, things are looking better. When we reviewed the N8 we remarked about the number of applications available for it.

Even though the platform was quite new, the store had decent number of apps available for it. Even now it is growing at a steady pace. But the thing about the Ovi Store is that it will just take care of the basics and you won't be spoilt for choice as on iOS or Android. Want a Twitter client, there is Gravity. Want an IM app, use Nimbuzz. While this does make it easier to choose, at times you wish you had more apps from the same category to choose from.

Windows Phone 7 has the least impressive library of applications available for it and although one can blame this on the short period of time it has been out we must say the Windows Marketplace didn't flood with great apps the way we expected it to be.

Just like Ovi, it has all the basic applications covered, but there is nothing here that isn't available on the other platforms as of now. Also, the applications and especially games seemed unreasonably expensive on the Marketplace compared to App Store or Android Market. The same app as on these stores would cost two to three times more on the Marketplace for no reason.

Perhaps developers are seeing Windows Phone 7 as a premium platform, considering all the Windows Phone 7 devices are high-end and think they can get away with pricing their apps high (the same reason why Android developers either choose to go the ad-based way or through OEMs because they know Android buyers aren't big spenders).

Verdict

You probably expected Symbian to be at the bottom of the chart when you started reading this article, but as surprising as it may be, it isn't. That (dis)honor goes to Windows Phone 7, which has a long way to go before it can play with the big boys. Sure it has the potential to be great with a killer interface that would seduce people into buying this phone (and flame me in the comments section for writing bad about it). But right now there are few reasons to consider buying a Windows Phone 7 handset. Perhaps by the time you are ready to buy your next smartphone, it would be ready for you.

Symbian has gone through a lot of changes over the past years and it has never been in a better shape before. But we feel it has reached the end of its potential and it's about time it hands over the torch to MeeGo, which will take over as the premium operating system on Nokia's smartphones. While there is nothing bad about it, others just seem a generation ahead and although it still has the one of the best feature list around it's not enough in today's world. The fact the Ovi Store isn't exactly brimming with great quality apps is also another reason why it lags behind.

iOS has had a long and successful journey and it still has a long way to go, but it seems too rigid in today's world. The interface design is still top notch and Apple's attention to detail is exemplary. However, you still miss some of those features, such as widgets for the homescreen or a notification system that does not annoy you. More than anything else, iOS's biggest trump card is the App Store, which is undoubtedly the best in the business. But the fact that you can only enjoy this wonderful OS on two smartphones, both of which are high-end devices, does not bode well for those who don't have 'Ambani' as their last name.

Android today is a completely different animal compared to what it was two years ago. It felt rudimentary, to say the least, and although it showed potential it was difficult to predict back then what it would be today. Google has worked hard on the OS and thanks to a steady stream of updates it has completely transformed into this new OS that can go head-to-head with the best of the business. It's still far from perfect though and certain issues such as fragmentation would never be solved. But people have accepted them and found ways to make things work regardless of presence.

Today's Android offers the best combination of features, performance and support from the developer community in terms of application and the fact that it can run on even a sub Rs. 7,000 handset proves that you don't need big bucks to own a smartphone. And it's because of all these qualities that it manages to narrowly nudge ahead of iOS, which has so far been the undisputed king of the smartphone segment. So our verdict is simple, if you don't have the cash to spend on an iPhone 4, get an Android.