The Sony Ericsson P series has been a significant success. While it may have not achieved the raw sales volumes of devices from rivals, such as Nokia, it has shone as a lucrative opportunity for developers. The three P models have consistently out performed every other smartphone in their ability to encourage users to add additional software.

The Sony Ericsson P990 should continue this success, it may even be able to accelerate it. Both C++ and Java developers get new capabilities to exploit, such as WiFi and UMTS high speed wireless networks, and new APIs. For Java developers these include the Nokia UI API, 3D graphics and, for the first time, access to the camera. C++ developers will get Sony Ericsson P990 specific Vibration and Bluetooth keyboard API, in addition to the Symbian OS and UIQ APIs. All applications will be also able to run in both flip open and flip closed modes.

Getting applications up and running on the P990 will not be the simple exercise it was for previous P Series devices or UIQ versions. UIQ 3 uses the latest version of Symbian OS. This will challenge developers because of the introduction of a secure capabilities model and a change to the underlying binary format used in the operating system.

The binary break, which moves Symbian OS to a new generation of ARM Binary, offers a number of long term performance advantages. In development terms it is a relatively minor issue, but no less inconvenient for that. It will require developers to implement a new tool chain, essentially a new compiler, to create applications for Symbian OS v9.1.

The secure capability model is more of a challenge. It means developers have to address two issues. Firstly the creation of the capabilities model has meant that some APIs have been removed, because they presented a potential security risk. This will obviously require developers to re-code applications that used these old APIs. Secondly having migrated their applications, to enable access to the capabilities on user's devices, the application must be Symbian Signed; a process which not all developers are used to.

Some developers will be fortunate, if their application makes no use of features such as messaging or communications, do not access user data such as calendar or contacts, then they may have few changes to make (beyond recompiling to the new binary). However, this will probably be a minority of applications, mainly games and simple personal utilities. For the majority of C++ applications there will need to be changes.

It is worth noting that Java developers are not affected by these issues. Java MIDP already has it own security model and certification program, in Java Verified. Java developers therefore will address the P990 in exactly the same way as they did the earlier P series models.

It is the challenge of migrating applications to Symbian OS v9.1 and UIQ 3 that has prompted Sony Ericsson to announce the P990 at the Smartphone Show, several months before its commercial release, to ensure developer have the opportunity to migrate applications in time for the launch. To do this developers obviously need the UIQ 3 SDK. The SDK will become generally available at the start of November, but developers attending the Smartphone Show will get a head start with 500 copies of the SDK available from the UIQ stand.

A glance at the specifications for the Sony Ericsson P990 suggested it is very likely to continue the success of its predecessors, when it goes on sale in the first quarter of 2006. The target user of the device is very much unchanged, so the applications sales opportunity should be buoyant.

For more see the Sont Ericsson P990 and UIQ 3 press releases.