 2005 was a huge year for the Symbian OS. Most notably, we welcomed the release
of Symbian OS v9 as well as series 60 3rd edition.. New devices were plentiful
including the long awaited N-Series and E-series of devices as well as the Nokia
7710 and popular 6680. As reported by Symbian Ltd., Q1 2005 shipments of phones
based on Symbian OS totalled 6.75m translating to year on year growth of more
than 180%. Read on for our recap of interesting and newsworthy Symbian OS developments
from 2005. Logging a few travel miles in 2005, the SymbianOne team made stops
in Helsinki, London, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Vancouver this past year...
ENJOY!
2004 was a great year for Symbian where 2004 full year shipments of phones based
on Symbian OS totalled 14.38m. As at December 31st 2004, 41 phones from 8 Symbian
OS licensees were shipping to more than 200 network operators around the world.(Source:
Symbian Ltd.). Kicking off 2005, Malware and mobile anti virus were in the news
and the mainstream media did a fine job of jumping on the bandwagon and trying
to scare people into reading their articles about how malware was infecting the
global mobile user community... in reality it was pretty much agreed upon that
users need to act responsibly and practice safe mobile computing in order to stay
safe... none-the-less, some fine mobile anti virus solutions came to market in
05. (for example, see simworks). Symbian OS news and developments were interesting and plentiful during 2005...
read on as we review the news from 2005.
Read on...
January 2005
To start things off in 2005 we looked back at 2004 and selected the key events
and technologies that have shaped the Symbian OS ecosystem (See 2004, the Symbian OS year in review). In January 2005 UIQ Technology and ACCESS Co., Ltd. announced that they had partnered to offer ACCESS' advanced
NetFront(TM) browser technology to the global UIQ community. Widely recognized
as one of the most advanced and successful full Internet browser solutions in
the mobile market, NetFront offers a comprehensive feature-set including support
for WAP 2.0, WML, HTML 4.01, and cHTML. Also in the news, WildPalm introduced new software for SonyEricsson's P800/P900/P910 devices. Neomedia
introduced the latest 'Go Window' for Nokia Series 60 devices. Go Window is a horizontal text-entry bar on the screen of a SmartPhone
where users can enter PaperClick-registered words, phrases or numeric strings
from UPC or other barcodes and link directly to targeted online information. We
also saw the introduction of PowerFile for Series 80 - file management for Nokia 9500 with all bells and whistles!
For the latter part of January we saw Series 60 malware very much in the news
with several new variants being "discovered". While malware is a problem with
serious consequences that is very different from it being a serious problem. Much
of the press was (and still is) using scare tactics which implied that this was
a huge and scary problem while failing to point out that there is no silent transmission
method... the solution that they need to focus on is that the user needs to be
smart and practice safe and smart mobile computing. On the software front we completed
a major review of MDMs Quickoffice version 3. There have been significant updates
to the Quickword and Quickpoint applications. Word and PowerPoint files edited in Quickoffice can now be returned
to a PC without any content brakes, making Quickoffice a genuine road warriors
tool. We also took a look at Mobility Electronics Pitch Duo which is a great presentation
tool. Looking ahead in the year, QuickOffice would go on to be named the Forum Nokia Developer of the Year!!!
Other notable news:
January kicked off with a slashdot rumor about the Samsung D720. Decuma became the first company to join the UIQ Alliance program - The UIQ
Alliance Partner Program provides an increased choice of UIQ compatible technologies
and knowledge that will be introduced to UIQ customers. The Series 60 Challenge promoted via series60.com, sponsored by Nokia, Sendo, Siemens and Symbian, generated
138 registrations in total from all over the world and the finalists were announced in mid-January. Finally, at the end of January Nokia announced the availability
of Python for Series 60. Available for free download via the website of Nokia's global developer community,
Forum Nokia (www.forum.nokia.com/python), Python for Series 60 is a software package that installs to a Series 60 platform-based
device, enabling developers to create applications with the simple and consistent,
object-oriented Python programming language.
Software announcements include:
- Neomedia's GoWindows for S60
- Pocket painter for UIQ from Aidem Systems
- Epocware/Paragon Software Group releases new dictionaries “SlovoEd” for Nokia
9500 communicator
- Webraska announced the availability of SmartZone Navigation for series 60
February 2005
In February we were treated with the release of the Symbian OS v9. Billed as a robust, secure, open and standards-based platform, Symbian OS
v9 supports Bluetooth stereo headsets, USB mass storage, advanced audio mixing
and playback, as well as the latest MPEG and OMA DRM standards, providing the
next-generation mobile OS enabling media-rich, converged devices supporting feature-rich,
robust applications. Nokia introduced developers to the new edition of the Series
60 Platform... aka. S60 3rd Edition. The Series 60 3rd Edition's new features
focus on enhanced multimedia and enterprise functionality, sustainable application
business support, state-of-the-art customization enablers and improved platform
architecture. See more info at http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1492/97/ and http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1488/97/. In a related announcement, Nokia announced in Febrary that the Preminet Solution
From Nokia would be adding content Offering From leading publisher Jamba! (See
http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1456/108/). Also from Nokia during February was the news of shipping the Nokia 7710 began
in Africa and Europe (http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1439/108/)
February was of course time for GSM, also, Nokia made the announcement that Jamba!
was to be a key content provider through Nokia's Preminet Solution. Much todo
was also made that month about Symbian OS 9. From our own Richard Bloor... "Symbian
OS v9 clearly offers developers many benefits"... this was reiterated in a very
popular feature we published "Symbian OS v9 - New Opportunities, New Challenges". In parallel with the announcement of Symbian OS™ v9, Symbian announced that a
wide range of standards-based tools designed to facilitate the development of
phones and applications based on Symbian OS v9. . Finally, a total of Seven new Symbian OS devices were officially announced at 3GSM by Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung and . Most noteworthy was the Leveno P930, the first Series 60 phone with a touch
screen. See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1547/97/. For more from 3GSM 2005 see the 3GSM news archive at http://www.symbianone.com/content/category/1/134/97/
In February 2005 Forum Nokia Pro celebrated their first anniversary. We took
a look at year one HERE. All together 350 companies were accepted into the program in the first year,
55% of which are engaged in Enterprise development with an equal number involved
in building Personal Productivity applications. More than 2,400 companies applied
for membership during the year. Demand was so heavy that in order to maintain
the quality of the members, there was a Euro 1,000 price increase implemented
for the second year. At the same time that the PRO program was taking off, the
general Forum Nokia community hds continued to grow and as of February stood at
2 million registrants.
News of interest to developers that month...CodeWarrior® Development Studio for
Symbian OS Version 3.0 (http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1418/97/)was added to the Symbian OS-based portfolio of development tools from Forum Nokia.
Python for Series 60 was also made available for free download, Python for Series
60 is a software package that installs to a Series 60 platform-based device, enabling
developers to create applications with the simple and consistent, object-oriented
Python programming language. See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1406/97/.
Finally, in yet another apparently poorly researched analysis of Symbian OS,
Gartner gave the thumbs down to Symbian OS v9 for enterprise use. In an online
rebuttal, SymbianOne evangelist Richard Bloor responded accordingly! See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1432/31/
New Software included:
- WildPalm's Earth Explorer for Nokia Series 60
- AppGate Network Security for Sony Ericsson P900/910
- Bitween Remote Control 2.0 for Nokia 9500
March 2005
In March we continued with additional focus on the series 60 3rd Edition. Our
spotlight "late night reading about Series 60" provided even more information
and pointers to useful resources focused on the latest release - See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1559/31/. Location-based services came on relatively strong in 2005 and we saw ROUTE
66 who developed "ROUTE 66 Mobile 2006 - Symbian UIQ - the first on-board navigation
kit for Symbian UIQ mobile phones and for mobile people - See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1580/97/. During the CeBIT 2005 show, Nokia reinforced its vision of mobility with its
latest innovations for 3G WCDMA, multimedia and enterprise. See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1583/97/. Taking pictures with your mobile phone was no longer confined to what is visible
through the view finder on the phone. Sony Ericsson's new Bluetooth™ controlled
camera, ROB-1, can move around freely, steered wirelessly by the joy-stick or
keypad on your mobile phone or as for P900/P910 with the touch screen, enabling
you to see on your phone screen exactly what ROB-1 is looking at. Introduced at
CeBIT, ROB-1 proved to be another fun and innovative 'first' for Bluetooth™ technology
- See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1594/97/. More Malware news as Symbian anti-virus specialist SimWorks announced that
it has identified the first Symbian virus capable of spreading itself via MMS
messages. Using MMS the CommWarrior.a virus, as SimWorks have named it, can instantaneously
send itself to any mobile phone in the world.
 See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1575/97/. March will also be remembered as when news that Nokia would start shipping
the long anticipated 6680 smartphone... Optimized for visual sharing, the Nokia
6680 imaging smartphone boasts a wide array of features including two integrated
cameras, a flash, the Nokia XpressPrint printing solution, an active slide for
easy camera activation and a bright screen of up to 262,144 colors (http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1629/108/).
From SymbianOne that month, we looked at how UIQ Technology have two programs
that get third party developers closely involved with UIQ, UIQ Selected and UIQ
Alliance. We spoke with Elisabet Melin UIQ Technology's VP Marketing to find out
why the two programs were necessary and how they differed. See UIQ Selected or UIQ Alliance - What's In A Name? Application reviews... A day on the road leave you all confused? Need to sort
out your thoughts, write a paper or prepare a presentation? Corisoft's SuperTree,
for the Nokia Communicator range, could be just what you need. We looked at SuperTree
- See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1569/.
During March SymbianOne was on the road in New Orleans, LA attending the annual
CTIA trade show. We managed to catch up with several developers for some special
one-on-one demonstrations (We saw some great solutions from BVRP, Zi Corp, Melodeo,
and M-Systems See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1625/) and we also took in the Forum Nokia Pro developer showcase (a cozy semi-formal
session with some 80 developers on hand) as well as the Navteq Location Based
services Challenge. Check out our CTIA feature at - Gumbo and Mobile applications on hand as Forum Nokia PRO Developers showcased
at CTIA. At the LBS Challenge, out of a field of some 180 companies 6 innovative applications
were singled out for excellence and recognized as winning apps, meeting the criteria
of superior usability and utility. We were pleased to have been in attendance
once again this year as Location-Based solutions take center stage. See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1627/. More information can be found in our LBS Challenge roundup. Finally, Canada's Zi Corporation have designs on your text. Designs to get
text into your hand held or smartphone easily and efficiently, regardless of input
method. SymbianOne spoke to Milos Djokovic Zi Corporation's Chief Technology Officer
and Chief Operating Officer just before CTIA. See the Q&A Here.
checking out the Nokia Communicator
Big news in March
April 2005
After a flurry of interest around the licensing of ActiveSync from Microsoft
the Symbian news once again was dominated by items about malware for Series 60.
Just in case all the talk of viruses, trojans and worms left you uneasy, we encouraged
readers to see our simple guide to staving off an attack: Protecting Your Symbian OS Smartphone From Malware.
Orative launched its Enterprise Solution in the US in April and we caught up
with John Drewry, Orative's VP marketing - details at http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1654/. Later that month we offered up a Review of Zi Corporation's Navigation And
Text Tools. Zi Corporation's text entry and Qix service discovery solutions promised
to make your smartphone easier to use. Check out what we came up with at http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1648/. We then looked at Project Professional, an application which used the Sony Ericsson
P910i's Java support for project management. See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1727/
Nokia buys CodeWarrior - Strengthening Symbian OS Support. SymbianOne caught up Markus Ahonen Nokia's Product Manager for CodeWarrior
to see how the transition had gone and find out more about where CodeWarrior for
Symbian OS is going.
May 2006
May was a huge month for the Symbian OS as Nokia officially announced the Nokia's
Nseries. Packed with the latest technologies such as 3G, Carl Zeiss Optics, megapixel
cameras, multi-gigabyte memory, VHS resolution video and WLAN, the Nokia Nseries
offers new fusions of digital media and mobility to the hands of mobile users.
We saw the introduction of the N90 - the world's first camera phone equipped with
Carl Zeiss optics; the Nokia N91 optimized for music enabling users to store up
to 3000 songs; and the Nokia N70 multimedia, the world's smallest Series 60 based
3G WCDMA device with a 2 megapixel camera. We rounded up the Nokia announcements
and look at what Nseries means. See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1754/
Nokia's N92 - The Nokia N92 provides a rich range of connectivity options such as Wi-Fi,
infrared, Bluetooth wireless technology as well as USB 2.0 (Mass Storage Class),
which allows users to connect the Nokia N92 directly to a compatible PC for quick
and convenient file transfers or downloads.
With the announcement of the first Series 60 3rd Edition phone we thought it
worth while catching up with developments in Series 60. So we spoke with Mikko
Rontynen, Senior Product Marketing Manager for the Series 60 Platform, with Nokia
Technology Platforms. http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1781/
We spoke with Ewan Spence, the author behind Rapid Mobile Enterprise Development
for Symbian OS. Despite its title this book was about making OPL accessible. See
http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/1712/
Other notable Symbian news in May:
Stay tuned as our 2005 Symbian OS Year-In-Review continues...
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