Nokia Brings Advanced Developer Benefits for S60 Software
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 Supports Competitiveness in Mid-Range Market
ESPOO, Finland, February 7/- Nokia today introduced a new Feature Pack for S60 on Symbian OS(TM), the market leading smartphone platform. S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 is designed for innovation and significantly facilitates the creation of compelling applications and accelerates performance. S60 3rd Edition is targeted for mid-range devices and offers significant usability enhancements for this category.
Development of applications and services for S60 devices will be faster and more cost-efficient as S60 brings a major extension to the C++ development environment with Open C. This introduction brings the familiar standard C function libraries to S60 software, supporting increased productivity and improved time-to-market of applications. With Open C, developers can reuse existing code and focus on the mobility aspects of their applications.
Symbian recently introduced four of the basic POSIX libraries on Symbian OS. With Open C, S60 is extending the reach and implementing five additional C libraries for an optimized solution to migrate open source and desktop applications to S60 on Symbian OS. Open C libraries are part of the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 and will be integrated into the publicly available software development kits.
Feature Pack 2 comes with improvements in usability and software architecture focusing primarily on the mid-range device category. Usability enhancements support the ease of use in for example messaging, multitasking and downloading. Feature Pack 2 also enables instant media playback during downloading and animated notification of inbound calls. Architectural improvements focus on ensuring excellent performance and flexibility of S60 in various hardware configurations, and include for example support for demand paging virtual memory technique.
"Feature Pack 2 is a major element of our strategy to support handset vendors in creating devices for the mid-range market," says Matti Vanska, Vice President, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, Nokia. "There are already five S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices launched worldwide by three handset vendors. The emphasis with Feature Pack 2 is on improved user experience, usability and ever richer development environment".
"Supplier efforts to simplify the user experience of smartphone software platforms are a key factor in attracting and retaining users, especially as those platforms strengthen their position in mainstream markets. But the ultimate success of smartphones rests with attracting the widest array of application developers. Aligning handset development more closely with the desktop is a good step towards achieving this," says Tony Cripps, senior analyst, mobile user experience, Ovum.
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 will be available for all S60 device manufacturers in Q2. It is fully compatible with S60 3rd Edition, and applications developed for 3rd Edition will run on all Feature Pack 2 devices. The new Feature Pack 2 will be demonstrated at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona in S60 stand in Hall 8.
According to Canalys research (January, 2007), S60 is the clear leader in converged device software with 54% market share globally in Q4 2006. Nokia alone has cumulatively shipped nearly 85 million S60 enabled devices by the end of 2006. To date, 49 devices based on S60 and Symbian OS have been launched, 20 of which are based on the latest S60 3rd Edition.
About S60
S60 software built on Symbian OS is the world's leading smartphone software, and is licensed by some of the industry's foremost mobile device manufacturers. The flexibility of the S60 software allows for various hardware designs and software configurations, as evidenced by the multitude of S60 devices already available on the market. Through its award-winning user interface, extensive support for new mobile services and the innovation potential for partner solutions, S60 provides an open and scalable business opportunity for mobile operators and 3rd party developers. For further information and news about S60 and the S60 community, please visit www.s60.com.
About Nokia
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations.
Source: Nokia
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