Nokia eager for Symbian^3's many enhancements

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 31 March 2010 08:49

Your IT - Mobility

The upcoming release of Symbian^3 with a much improved user interface and a host of other enhancements is being eagerly awaited by Nokia which has seen its share of the smartphone market decline.

The Symbian Foundation has now provided a preview of Symbian^3, the second version of the Symbian platform since it was made available as open source software earlier this year.

In a posting on its official blog site, Nokia says, "Here on 'Conversations' we're already getting excited about the prospect of the new UI. We've seen the screen shots and checked out the first hands-on videos, and although exact details remain sparse it looks set to be a stonker (sic)."

Release of Symbian^3 is seen as being a key precursor to Nokia regaining lost ground in the smartphone market. In March Juniper Research was forecasting a flood of low cost smartphones hitting the market this year; and at the top end Ovum said Nokia was lagging in the race to offer more processing power and performance.

Analyst Tim Renowden said: "the forthcoming release of the Symbian^3 platform (and associated new hardware in 2H10) can't come quickly enough for Nokia." http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/market/37450

According to the Foundation, Sybmian^3 "extends Symbian^2 in many ways, including graphics support for advanced layering and effects, full HDMI support for a great television playback experience and improved data performance - ideal for streaming high definition audio and video."

CONTINUED