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All About Symbian


Symbian is a mobile operating system owned and maintained by Nokia. It was originally owned by Symbian Ltd. and Nokia took over the company in the year 2008. Programmed in C++, Symbian has received lots of revisions and improved versions in the past few years. 

Nokia has come up with 4 versions of Symbian, after it acquired Symbian Ltd. The journey from Symbian 1 to Symbian Anna has seen a remarkable improvement. So, what are the basic differences and enhancements introduced in these versions?

Symbian^1 - It’s the incorporation of Symbian OS and S60 platform (5th edition).
Symbian^2 – The first royalty free open source version of Symbian, it was adopted by DoCoMo and Sharp for their smartphones in the year 2010.
Symbian^3 – Released in 2010, Symbian^3 is also known as the next generation smartphones OS.

Evolution from Symbian^1 to Symbian^3

  • While Symbian^1 had only one customizable home screen, Symbian^3 made it possible for the user to have 3 customizable home screens.
  • Symbian^1 supported Wi-Fi b/g versions and Symbian^3 came with Wi-Fi b/g/n versions.
  • Symbian^1 devices support Flash Lite 3.1 and the one with Symbian^3 have Flash Lite 4
  • Symbian^3 also made it possible for the phone to support HDMI video playback via an external connector. 2D & 3D features and an improved UI are other USP’s of Symbian^3.   
 Nokia N8, C7-00, C6-01 are a few Nokia phones with Symbian^3.

The New Anna from Symbian

Symbian Anna is the freshest OS by Symbian, released in April 2011. While the Symbian^3 and earlier phones have WebKit based browser, Symbian Anna has a new browser with an improved speed. The Symbian Anna device will also have a virtual QWERTY keypad in portrait orientation, up to 5 customizable home screens, and real-time home screen scrolling. 

Nokia X7-00 and E6-00 are the two Symbian Anna phones introduced by Nokia.

The Global Market Share

The OS giant, Symbian has seen decline in the market share due to the increased popularity of Android phones. Ranking second, Symbian acquires 31% of market share whereas Android stands tall & confident with 33%. Apple scores third rank with 16% and RIM’s share has dropped to 14%. Windows Mobile acquires 3% stake in market.

Why Not Symbian?

While Symbian is still more favored OS in countries like India, European nations are turning to Android and Apple phones. There are a few disadvantages with Symbian phones, which are making gadget geeks disappointed.

Android being an open source software allows you to download a gamut of free apps as well as develop third party apps for Android users.

One major drawback is non-upgradable nature of Symbian phones. Well, Nokia has now announced that N8 and a few more handsets can be upgraded to Symbian Anna, but that’s not enough. What about the non-upgradable phones? You won’t be left with an option other than buying a new phone.

It is also said that Symbian phones will require a minimum of 70MB RAM and 369MHz processor speed to deliver an optimal performance, which is again a loop hole.

If you are an apps freak and just can’t resist yourself from downloading the latest of games, wallpapers or utility apps, Symbian is definitely not your phone. There are hundreds of Android apps being made and uploaded everyday in the Android Market for application lovers.

Going by stats, flaws, and trend, is it right to say that Symbian share will further drop in the coming quarter. Will Symbian Anna support Nokia in rising from the fall again or it’s high time that Nokia should switch to Android? Will too much of Android invite saturation point in the market?

Source - http://www.saholic.com/

Comments

  1. SaraSeptember 28, 2011 at 1:30 AM

    Outstanding explanation of Symbian, am a programmer. really appreciate your knowledge!!
    Free Software Download

    ReplyDelete
  2. AminJanuary 4, 2012 at 4:54 AM

    Really nice explanation! Thanx for sharing your knowledge. I appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete

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