Mindful of the advance of Linux as an OS for mobile handsets, Nokia is giving their updated Series 60 Platform 3rd Edition, the loud fanfare treatment at 3GSM Cannes.
Although the Series 60 Platform is currently the leading smart phone platform in the world (licensed by mobile phone heavyweights such as LG Electronics, Lenovo, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens), things are hotting up in the smartphone market with increased competition from Linux and Microsoft’s just-announced ‘Peabody’ phone.
Running on Symbian OS v9.0, the updated software will enable Series 60 handset manufacturers to create smartphones for various user segments, device formats and better target high volume consumer markets. And – they hope – beat off Linux.
The Series 60 3rd Edition will be available for licensees in mid-2005 and comes stuffed full of groovy new features including enhanced multimedia and enterprise functionality, sustainable application business support, customisation tools and improved platform architecture.
But what does that mean in English? Allow us to explain!
The software will include all the features and functions of the previous editions – including multiradio, extensive application suite, scalable UI and high-resolution support – and bolt on lots of new refinements for business and consumer users.
Let’s look at multimedia first: the new software will offer a new music player, more functionality for rich media content, USB mass memory storage and high-quality multimedia rendering.
The music player will come with all the bells and whistles demanded by the youth market (and hipster execs!), including “seamless and easy-to-use music downloading” with personalised themes and skins.
USB support means that it’ll be easier to exchange music files from mobile to PC, although we suspect that some of their target audience may not be quite so excited by the inclusion of OMA Digital Rights Management (DRM) v2.0.
For business users, the Series 60 3rd Edition also includes significant improvements in many areas, including a new security framework and calendar, synchronisation and device management enhancements.
The new functionality on a platform architecture level will allow manufacturers to target devices for specific segments, with increased support for different hardware configurations, including single and dual-chip hardware architectures and improved performance.
The global smartphone market is expanding at a huge rate – Nokia will have shipped approximately 20 million Series 60 based devices by the end of February and estimates the overall smartphone market in 2005 to exceed 50 million units. In 2008, Nokia expects the smartphone market to be around 25 percent of the total mobile device market.
Series60.com
Series 60 Developer Platform 2.0 and Feature Packs (PDF)