CTIA 2007: Symbian, the mobile OS company is expected to announce an upgrade to its OS to version 9.5 at CTIA, that hopefully will decrease its reliance on smartphones, its main patron Nokia, and also ward off competition from fast growing rival mobile operating systems, Windows Mobile and Linux.
The upgrade is even more crucial for the London-based company because large mobile carriers - Vodafone in particular - want to support as few operating systems as possible.
In 2006 Symbian had 76% share of the smartphone market, thanks to its very close relationship with Nokia (which owns 47.9% of the company, rest being shared amongst other handset makers), which had 56% share of the global smartphone market. Nokia’s E-Series and N-Series phones have been particularly popular in non-US markets. But competition from Windows Mobile and Linux is increasing according to ABI Research, a market research company. Symbian’s share of the smart phone market is going to decline to around 46% by 2012.
[ABI] Research director Stuart Carlaw remarks that, “It is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ Linux will have an impact upon this market. “
With the new OS upgrade, Symbian is trying to increase its appeal, betting that it can sneak its way into more mainstream handsets (called feature handsets in industry parlance.) The new OS is going to make more efficient use of memory, battery and other resources, making it more flexible for use in mainstream phones.
The new OS will allow Wi-Fi 3G roaming. Push-email and VoIP run over WiFi when in the office and automatically switch to 3G when on the move. In addition, Symbian has added real-time networking ensures that VoIP is not interrupted when other IP-based services, such as web browsing or push email, make a connection.
The new version will give multimedia features a major boost. The camera features would now include image orientation, image distortion correction auto-focus such as red-eye reduction - 35 improvements you find in a typical standalone digital camera.
The system will have better connectivity with home computers, via wireless and The new OS upgrade supports multi-standard digital TV (DVB-H, ISDB-T) and standardized LBS.
8 comments so far
1:22 PM PT
[...] Symbian upgrades its OS, fights off rivals Om Malik at GigaOM has the scope on an interesting upgrade from Symbian, and will probably help then when compared to Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, and the upcoming iPhone, but I fear that the platform is too shortsighted in its original underpinnings (tags: symbian smartphone mobile-phone) [...]
5:47 PM PT
[...] Source and more: GigaOM [...]
11:33 PM PT
[...] GigaOM reports that Symbian is about to announce a significant upgrade to its operating system on Monday at CTIA. According to ABI Research, Symbian held a commanding 73% market share of the loosely defined Smart-phone market in 2006, resulting in about 50 Million shipments. [...]
9:52 AM PT
[...] is set to launch an upgrade to its mobile device operating system at CTIA next [...]
11:15 AM PT
Surely “is predicted to”? Or do you have a particularly accurate crystal ball?
7:02 AM PT
[...] vienvaldė išmaniųjų telefonų operacinių sistemų lyderė, nepaisant gerų santykių su Nokia. Naujoji 9.5 versija turėtų naudoti mažiau energijos, efektyviau panaudoti atmintį, būti suderinama su DVB-H ir [...]
8:00 AM PT
[...] As many know, phones based on Nokia S60 uses Symbian’s proprietary operating system. Nokia N82 is the latest phone (more of a gadget actually because of its slick camera) which is based on S60 and Symbian. Symbian is also behind Motorola (MOT) Z8 slider. The user interface of Z8 was positively reviewed by bloggers. Some of the improvements are attributed to a recent upgrade of the OS by the company. [...]
10:19 AM PT
[...] Symbian is in the clear, but declining lead, with ~60-70% of smartphone market. There have been a bunch of predictions that Windows Mobile will overtake Symbian, but that has not happened yet. I am [...]
Leave a Comment