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Symbian

An open source smartphone operating system for ARM processors from Nokia. In 2010, more than a third of all smartphones sold worldwide were Symbian phones (for details, see smartphone operating...

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Definition: Symbian

An open source smartphone operating system for ARM processors from Nokia. In 2010, more than a third of all smartphones sold worldwide were Symbian phones (for details, see smartphone operating system). In 2011, Nokia announced that, going forward, it would use Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system for its smartphones.

Symbian uses the WebKit browser, and apps are written in C++, Qt, Flash and Java (J2ME). Prior to the Symbian platform, which combined OS and all related components into one system, versions used numbers such as Symbian OS 9.1, 9.2 and so on. Platform releases changed their designations to Symbian^1, Symbian^2 and Symbian^3.

From EPOC to Symbian OS/S60 to Symbian
The Symbian platform started out in the late 1980s as the EPOC operating system for PDAs from the Psion Software division of London-based Psion PLC (www.psion.com). In 1998, Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Psion created Symbian Ltd. to support the EPOC OS as an independent entity, and EPOC OS was renamed Symbian OS. In 2009, the Symbian Foundation was launched to offer the Symbian platform under an open source license, which includes the Symbian OS, the S60 user interface and related components. In late 2010, Nokia took over Symbian development, and the Foundation closed its operations except to provide licensing and legal support. See smartphone.



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  • Nokia announces most compact, brightest, and loudest Symbian devices ever

    Today Nokia announced three new Symbian devices with the Nokia 700, Nokia 701, and Nokia 600. They also revealed official details on the next OS update, Symbian Belle, that is loaded on these...

    Image galleries | August 24, 2011 7:45am PDT

  • Top 11 smartphones to end 2010

    The smartphone space changes quite often, but now that all of the major holiday announcements have been made it is time to look at the best smartphones available as we head to the end of 2010. As...

    Image galleries | October 25, 2010 1:24am PDT

  • Hands-on with the Nokia N8 Symbian^3 smartphone

    The Nokia N8 is the first Symbian^3 smartphone from Nokia and has high expectations. After the N97 failed to impress last year, Nokia hasn't had a great high end device since the Nokia N95. After...

    Image galleries | October 4, 2010 5:18am PDT

  • First look at Firefox Mobile

    The first glimpse of Firefox Mobile, developed exclusively for Maemo 5 on the Nokia N900.

    Image galleries | December 27, 2009 3:42pm PST

  • Image Gallery: Native mobile Facebook application comparison

    An official Google Android Facebook application was released this week, which prompted us to take a look at the official Facebook application that is available across every mobile operating system...

    Image galleries | September 14, 2009 3:53am PDT

  • Image Gallery: Nokia World 2009 products and services

    Nokia World 2009 was held in Stuggart, Germany in September 2009 and a few new products and accessories were shown with some beta services. Check out these images of the upcoming Nokia products.

    Image galleries | September 2, 2009 6:50am PDT

  • Image Gallery: King of the QWERTYS

    Touch screen smartphones are all the rage today with the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Google Android devices. However, there are still millions of people who enjoy a messaging experience on forward...

    Image galleries | July 19, 2009 10:11pm PDT

  • New Symbian-based mobile worm circulating in the wild

    F-Secure and Fortinet are investigating a newly discovered mobile malware identified as SymbOS/Yxes.A!worm or "Sexy View". The malware is affecting S60 3rd Edition series devices, and has a valid...

    Blog posts | February 19, 2009 9:29am PST

  • New mobile malware silently transfers account credit

    Kaspersky Lab today warned users of five newly found variants of the Trojan-SMS.Python.Flocker mobile malware, targeting an Indonesian mobile provider's service allowing users to transfer money or...

    Blog posts | January 21, 2009 2:39pm PST

  • Image Gallery: Matthew Miller's mobile device history, 1997-2008

    I was recently asked how many PDAs and mobile phones I have owned since I started using them in 1997 and discovered there were 90 that I could remember. This doesn't even count all the review...

    Image galleries | October 3, 2008 8:34am PDT

  • First Symbian Foundation handsets due in 2010

    Nokia predicts the first phones using the new Symbian Foundation platform will arrive in two years' time, although its device chief says this is subject to "shades of grey."

    News items | June 24, 2008 7:21am PDT

  • Nokia buys Symbian to form open-source Android killer

    Nokia is to buy out Symbian and set up a new open-source platform with Motorola, Sony Ericsson and NTT DoCoMo, forming a major rival to Google's Android

    News items | June 24, 2008 7:06am PDT

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