There’s a lot of activity underway, throughout the software development teams for all the different packages that make up the Symbian Platform.
These packages are finding their way into platform releases. The plan is that there will be two platform releases each year. Here’s a high-level picture of what’s expected over the next year or so:
Symbian^2, which is based on S60 5.1, reaches a functionally complete state at the middle of this year, and should be hardened by the end of the year. This means that the first devices based on Symbian^2 could be reaching the market any time around the end of this year – depending on the integration plans, the level of customisation, and the design choices made by manufacturers. Symbian^3 follows on six months later – reaching a functionally complete state at the end of this year, and should be hardened by the middle of 2010.
In the picture, the yellow arrow roughly indicates the time period in which the code for a platform release is available. The milestones in a platform release are overseen by the Release Council on behalf of the community:
- Prior to functionally complete, the platform grows as new features are added by contributors
- Between functionally complete and hardened the development community focuses on driving up stability of the platform by testing and contributing defect fixes
- After hardened the release enters a more stable phase. Contributed defect fixes will continue to be incorporated by package owners for around 12 months, but prime focus will be on later releases.
Progress towards both milestones will be governed by contributions from the community. The intent is to “timebox” each release by fixing the functionally complete date and including only features that deliver in time at a reasonable stability level. This is the same principle that has worked so well with integrated releases of Symbian OS in recent years.
For a fuller picture of the lifecycle of a platform release, take a look at this:
As you can see, the diamonds representing the “functionally complete” milestones are paced out six months apart – though it’s open to the Release Council to alter the timing. There will typically be 5 platforms under engineering development at any one time:
- One release – Symbian^N say (abbreviated to “S^N”) will be in the hardening phase
- Two previous releases will be in the stable phase
- The next release (S^ N+1) will be in feature submission phase
- The one after that (S^ N+2) will be in early builds.
There will also be roadmap plans for releases happening even later.
The feature set for Symbian^2 is already virtually frozen. Most of the content for Symbian^3 is already agreed, but there’s scope for contributors to make a difference. The content for releases from Symbian^4 onwards is much more open for debate.
In many senses of the phrase, we’re open for contribution!
[...] fa la Symbian Foundation, tramite il blog ufficiale, ha comunicato il piano di rilascio della Symbian Platform, il sistema operativo open-source - per [...]
[...] on their Blog, the Symbian Foundation posted about their Release Plans, earlier [...]
Hi David,
My world inspires me with ideas., i see several worlds of colossal change evolving from this device we call the mobile phone.
I wanted to ask a question, and would like a rather specific response. Its about Nokia and Symbian’s influence in developing nations like Nigeria. I see that it seems all Nokia Nigeria does here is market phones. But the potential of these mobile devices goes beyond their surface features and they can really be catalysts of change in a country like Nigeria. For more than 4 weeks i’ve been sending mails to their executives (at Nokia Nigeria), but have gotten 0-replies. It you wouldn’t mind i’d like to send you a copy of the e-mail i sent them.
But even before that, if you wouldn’t mind as to briefly presenting your views/opinions of Nokia and Symbian’s place in developing nations.
Thanks in advance.
Br,
David.O.
What updates can I expect to be able to retrofit onto my device?
If I buy a 5800 now, will I be able to update it to S^2? There still seem to be a few loose ends in S60/5th, and I would hate to plonk my money on it just to see it rendered obsolete in six months. And it looks as though Feature Pack 1 will introduce Qt, which I think is going to be huge.
Has it been generally possible to get feature pack updates for existing hardware? If not, do you think this might change now that S60 is becoming free software?
How does the above tie in with S40, S60 3rd and 5th editions?
Is “Symbian^N” the official name for a Symbian Foundation release then? How do you pronounce that?
Hi David.O,
>I see several worlds of colossal change evolving from this device we call the mobile phone … the potential of these mobile devices goes beyond their surface features and they can really be catalysts of change
I completely agree! Symbian sees smart mobile devices as the catalysts of many far-reaching improvements throughout the world
>It you wouldn’t mind i’d like to send you a copy of the e-mail i sent them
We’re open to ideas! You can reach me at davidw AT symbian DOT org
(But my email inbox sometimes gets pretty full, so please bear with me if I am slow to respond.)
Alternatively, once the forums at http://www.symbian.org (currently still in internal testing) are open, you can share your ideas there.
>briefly presenting your views/opinions of Nokia and Symbian’s place in developing nations
I’m not sure that such a large topic can easily be covered in brief remarks!
In short, these devices can cut across all kinds of divides and distance, putting information and community into the hands of people everywhere. Smart devices, deployed wisely, can in effect raise people’s IQs, raise countries’ GDPs, lower barriers to participation, and enable a much deeper collaboration.
// David W.
Hi Nacho de los Ríos,
>What updates can I expect to be able to retrofit onto my device?
In principle, there are three methods in which new Symbian Platform software can be placed onto an existing device:
1.) A component can be placed on a memory card, or in internal memory, and could override the corresponding component in the operating system of the device (usually stored on some FLASH memory)
2.) The operating system could be partially updated, using a technique such that from Redbend
3.) The entire operating system could be updated.
Methods 2 and 3 depend on the device manufacturer. It’s up to the device manufacturers to decide which updates they make available in this way.
Method 1 will only work in some cases – depending on the interfaces between the new components and the rest of the system software. If a new component relies on later versions of the platform APIs from the system software, it won’t run on old devices like this.
(The Symbian Platform makes a commitment to preserve public APIs in between releases. However, we reserve the right to change platform APIs.)
>I would hate to plonk my money on it just to see it rendered obsolete in six months
It’s a fact of life that, in six months time, there will always be better hardware and better software
But that doesn’t mean that a device bought six months earlier becomes “obsolete”!
// David W.
Hi Zahed,
>How does the above [the Symbian platform release plan] tie in with S40, S60 3rd and 5th editions?
Symbian^2 and future releases will maintain compatibility with the public APIs on S60 5th edition. So apps written for S60 5th edition will in general run fine on Symbian Foundation devices. It’s the same with S60 3rd edition (because the public APIs from that edition are, in general, also preserved in the 5th edition).
S40 has no public C++ SDK so the same question doesn’t arise in this case.
// David W.
Hi Jenny,
>Is “Symbian^N” the official name for a Symbian Foundation release then? How do you pronounce that?
The simplest way to pronounce “Symbian^2″ is “Symbian two”.
But I’m sure people will also say things like “Symbian to the power of two” and “Symbian mark two” and “Symbian spring two”…
You can also view the ‘^’ as an upside down ‘v’. So we’re telling the world that, in a way, we are intending to turn versioning upside down – by opening up our roadmap discussions to the entire community.
// David W.
It’s a fact of life that, in six months time, there will always be better hardware and better software
Yeah, that’s progress. However, it is a sad fact of life that, even though you’re stuck with your older hardware, the better software could run on it just fine, often much better than your older version; unfortunately, you are often also stuck with the older software version because the manufacturer won’t bother to prepare the upgrade. Or even sadder, the manufacturer does prepare the upgrade, but your Telco won’t pass it on to your locked hardware!
That’s why unlocked hardware and free software is important. Even when the manufacturer has given up on a device, the user base can carry on improving it until interest finally fades.
I’d like to know if it is customary from Nokia to push the feature packs to older hardware, or if it is a really rare occurrence. I like the 5800, but I’m afraid of its dot-zero O/S
Anyway, thanks for your attention!
Hi Nacho,
>Or even sadder, the manufacturer does prepare the upgrade, but your Telco won’t pass it on to your locked hardware!
It’s sometimes said that, while device manufacturers want to sell new devices, network operators are more interested in new services.
Network operators ought therefore to be interested in “new services on old phones”, and should welcome the chance to pass on an upgrade to an existing phone.
However, what sometimes holds them back, I think, is a fear that the upgrade will cause some kind of regression, or that data and applications or other customisation installed by the user will be lost as a result of the upgrade – with consequent increased support call costs to the network operator.
As the industry improves the slickness of the process of software upgrades, this worry ought to disappear!
// David W.
S60 5th edition currently refers to touch screen phones. Can you clarify whether this means touch phones are the future for Symbian?
[...] En el día de hoy la Symbian Foundation en su blog dió a conocer sus planes de lanzamiento. [...]
Hi Zahed,
Symbian^2 supports both touch and non-touch devices, in a variety of form factors and screen resolutions (including flexible aspect ratios).
The market will decide the relative importance of touch and non-touch. Symbian’s vision is to enable different players to experiment with their own diverse visions of what will serve the market best.
// David W.
Are these exponential version numbers?
S^N-1 should be S^(N-1)
Hi Stringer,
> S^N-1 should be S^(N-1)
The mathematics part of my brain agrees with you.
The software engineer part of my brain agrees with you too.
But the part of my brain that seeks simplicity in communication plumped for
S^ N-1
instead of the more accurate
S^(N-1).
The diagram (and the accompanying text) already looked complicated enough, without extra pairs of brackets adding to the picture
For most purposes, we would have literal integers instead, such as S^3, S^4, S^5…
so instead of symbian s60 the new name will be symbian two? So symbian-one will now be the defunct symbian s60 versions that we have running at the moment aka n-series e-series, n80 etc etc?
Interesting post and comments. I like the “^” naming. As for pronounciation, I think I’ll go for “Symbain Squared”, “Symbain Cubed” and then we’ll see…
[...] Foundation’s David Wood has recently published the release schedule for the upcoming versions of the open-source Symbian [...]
[...] är på Symbian Foundations blogg vi kan läsa om hur planeringen ser ut för det nya operativsystemet Symbian ^2 som är baserat på [...]
[...] non sono stato il solo ed un utente sul blog ufficiale di Symbian Foundation, riporta la stessa [...]
ha, excuse my pedantry.
Other responses:
You could say that symbian is turning version numbers on their head (because ^ is like an upside down v).
or…
Symbian new whimsical branding agency decided the the v in v2 was too negative since it pointed down. In these troubled times we decided to have it pointing up as a sign of hope and promise.
>Symbian new whimsical branding agency decided the the v in v2 was too negative since it pointed down. In these troubled times we decided to have it pointing up as a sign of hope and promise.
Brilliant!
Have you applied for a job here? That kind of imagination is a ^+
[...] Read [...]
[...] Más información | Symbian. [...]
[...] Symbian Foundation is sharing the next two years of planning and efforts for the S60 mobile operating system. There isn’t much in terms of what’s going in the releases, but it looks like [...]
>Network operators ought therefore to be interested in “new services on old >phones”, and should welcome the chance to pass on an upgrade to an existing >phone.
I guess it is now more the device manufacturers who either allow or not allow SW upgrades to new major versions. For most users it is warmly welcomed if they could update their Symbian phone like Nokia does with Maemo devices and Apple with iPhone
[...] than that, there is little interesting to see: hit this link for the full scoop… Related posts:The Symbian Foundation: an UIQ developer speaks upDavid [...]
[...] newly reformed Symbian Foundation, after being purchased by Nokia in 2008, have announced the roadmap for thier OS release schedule. They’re aiming for a first release of the new Symbian Foundation OS V2 to deveolpers in [...]
[...] amazing software and hardware in the future. Yesterday, the Symbian Foundation introduced their release plan that show two platform releases per year for the next three [...]
>It’s a fact of life that, in six months time, there will always be better hardware and better software
>But that doesn’t mean that a device bought six months earlier becomes “obsolete”!
Here is the thing it seems that with other platforms you are able to upgrade to the latest version of that new operating system that is available onto the current handsets. I think Nokia and Symbian (more so Nokia since they no own Symbian) should allow some older handsets to still run the latest OS if possible. Like right now I do not understand how N95-3 can’t have s60 v3rd FP2 (N96 processor is less then that of the N95-3) when it supposedly the N95-3 is running s60 v3rd. That’s the same operating system. I know you will say “That depends on the manufacturer to allow that or not.” but that is a nonsense answer. Look at the Android process sure they have one phone at the moment but it seems that the upgrading of the OS won’t be from from the Manufacturer of the phone but the manufacturer of the OS with collaboration of the manufacturer of the phone. Mindsets at Nokia and Symbian should change to allow devices to upgrade to newer OS even if need to pay say $50. Nacho de los Rios worries are legitimate concerns , that’s why I myself am weary about getting a new Symbian device in the future and looking at other phone Operating Systems that seem to allow OS upgrades on handset you already have. Now if one is allowed to upgrade from Symbian^2 to Symbian^3 with the current handset they have with out buying a new phone that be revolutionary and great within the Symbian world.
[...] Foundation OS release schedules published Symbian Foundation blog published a released schedule for the Symbian Foundation OS. According to that, S60 5th edition [...]
[...] Symbian Foundation is planning to move to twice a year release schedule, which means user — and more importantly, cellphone makers — will be able to plan for updates. [...]
[...] progetto avviato tempo fa dalla Symbian Foundation. A quanto pare, tramite il loro blog ufficiale (che potete visitare a questo link), la compagnia ha ufficializzato il piano di rilascio della Symbian Platform, il sistema operativo [...]
Hi Lu,
>…it seems that with other platforms you are able to upgrade to the latest version of that new operating system that is available onto the current handsets… Look at the Android process sure they have one phone at the moment but it seems that the upgrading of the OS won’t be from from the Manufacturer of the phone but the manufacturer of the OS with collaboration of the manufacturer of the phone.
I think it’s premature to extrapolate too much from the example of the single Android phone model that has reached the market so far (in contrast to the 250+ models based on Symbian OS).
>I think Nokia and Symbian (more so Nokia since they now own Symbian)…
Clarification: Nokia bought Symbian Ltd, but the Symbian Foundation is a separate organisation, which has 10 shareholders, with each shareholder having only a single vote. Nokia is only one of these shareholders.
>… should allow some older handsets to still run the latest OS if possible. Like right now I do not understand how N95-3 can’t have s60 v3rd FP2 (N96 processor is less then that of the N95-3) when it supposedly the N95-3 is running s60 v3rd. That’s the same operating system….
I say again that there’s nothing in the operating system itself that prevents manufacturers upgrading a device from one release to another.
I’m not an expert on the precise case of the software inside the N95-3, but here’s something to consider. A device like the N95-3 has a large amount of additional software in it. Some of that extra software may well use platform APIs, as well as public APIs. When the operating system moves to another version, the platform APIs can change (although the public ones remain fixed). So switching the whole device software up to a new release of the operating system may involve changing and then re-testing the add-on software.
This involves costs – costs which the manufacturer has to weigh up. But as you say, there are benefits too!
// David W.
Hi,
I’m nokia E-series user, and have faith that symbian will be great and be the best.
I wanna know if the symbian/qt-for-s60 will run on Linux. If not now, is it on the roadmap?
Thanks.
[...] formed Symbian Foundation will not be resting on it’s laurels, offered up it’s plan for five simultaneous builds of it’s OS. This will allow agile support for in-demand features yet ensure active builds released in the [...]
[...] – Symbian Foundation Blog, [...]
[...] – Symbian Foundation Blog, [...]
[...] The Symbian Foundation, reponsible for the popular Symbian OS that runs on smartphones, has announced that it will be changing its release schedule to what appears to be a 6 month cycle, according to the images published on their blog : [...]
Looks like Symbian (read: Nokia) is taking the risk of splintering the Symbian.
It’s commendable that you have finally understood the importance of time pacing and are now able to copy Intel’s tick/tock approach.
However, this sentence really leaves everybody wondering:
“It’s a fact of life that, in six months time, there will always be better hardware and better software
”
Look at Apple: same hw for 2 years and several free major point-oh OS upgrades, unlike the cumbersome bug fixes Nokia has offered so far.
HTC is offering free upgrades from WinMo 6.1 to 6.5 for future phones.
Google andgroid phones can be upgraded for free as well.
One doesn’t have to buy a new phone every six months to get a few additional features.
If this is the way Nokia / Symbian partners are going, they are really going to have hard time force-selling these devices in the new marketplace that is now evolving.
I wouldn’t mind paying for the upgrade – after all, somebody has to build it and get paid – but I detest having to buy a new hardware for OS upgrades when the competition offers them for free!
so s60v5.1 or symbian^2 is the immediate future of all foundation members’ phones’ os right? is it called symbian square? (^2 signifying raised to the power 2 right..)
[...] أعلنت مؤسسة Symbian Foundation الكيان الجديد الذي أسسته Nokia بشكل رئيسي للحفاظ على نظام التشغيل الذي تعمل به أجهزتها و تعزيز قدراته التنافسية, أعلنت عن مخططاتها النهائية لعملية تطوير النظام الذي مرت عليه أوقات طويلة دون تطويرات حقيقية. وفقا للخطة الزمنية الموضوعة لSymbian فإن النظام سيحصل على تحديث جديد كل 6 أشهر في المستقبل و ذلك بعد طرح الإصدار الرئيسي الأول له و الذي سيحمل الإسم Symbian^2 و الذي سيأتي مبنيا على نواة من نظام Symbian S60 5th Edition و ينطق اسم الإصدار الجديد وفقا للشركة “سيمبيان 2″ و هو الإصدار الذي سنراه مكتمل الخواص في منتصف العام الحالي على أن تظهر أولى نماذجه التجارية نهاية العام الحالي أو مطلع عام 2010. [...]
[...] Symbian Foundation is planning to move to twice a year release schedule, which means user — and more importantly, cellphone makers — will be able to plan for [...]
Really? Open Source? You mean, if you give them $1500, then, MAYBE, you get the source. And, what can you do with it?
Basically, nobody gives a damn of Symbian anymore ( did they ever did, from a developer POV?), when there are WAY better platforms to work with, in the mobile space. Symbian has:
1) A brain-dead API, written in pseudo-C++ by someone that was learning C++ along the way
2) HORRIBLE development tools made by gluing together PE binaries, batch files, perl files and God knows what else. On device debugging being awefull and Carbide is just a broken GUI over the broken development chain
3) Unwatchable documentation
Gee, wonder why Symbian has a ZERO size development community, and is considered the most developer-hostile environment to work with.
Hi Jerry,
>Really? Open Source? You mean, if you give them $1500, then, MAYBE, you get the source…
What’s the reason for your scepticism? (The “MAYBE”?) Do you have some special inside knowledge?
Take it from me that signed members of the foundation will shortly have access to the current source code for around the 100 packages making up Symbian^2.
Members of the public will initially have access to a considerably smaller number of the packages – under an open source licence (the EPL). This number will grow between now and around June 2010 when all the software in the plaform will be open source.
>…And, what can you do with it?
To start with, people can review the code, and deepen their understanding of how it works, and to improve the performance of their own code that interfaces to Symbian platform code.
Shortly afterwards, the kind of scenarios I outlined here should be possible.
>Basically, nobody gives a damn of Symbian anymore … when there are WAY better platforms to work with, in the mobile space
It’s your choice. If you prefer to concentrate exclusively upon other mobile platforms, I wish you a pleasant journey.
// David W.
[...] Introducing the Release Plan [...]
hmm…very interestiing
First of all, the name is good…Symbian square, Symbian Cube, Symbian
but the question for me is…Will S60 3rd Ed (Pre FP1, FP1 & FP2) mobiles be allowed to upgrade their firmwares to this new version?
Perhaps to even only the first installment of the OS, so we can atleast get the taste of what’s to come?
As you know, and you might argue… N82/N95 are one of THE best handsets Nokia has ever churned out and not even the upcoming handsets have threatened the sale of these two. So, will us old users be abandoned, or will we get to taste the new age? Or should we think about switching
?
I expect a nice reply
Thanks
[...] Ainda líder entre os sistemas operacionais mais usados no mundo, a Symbian é a marca que vem mais perdendo mercado nos últimos meses. Para se recuperar, um sistema agressivo e “aberto” foi anunciado nesta semana. [...]
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hi,
Till now the S60 needs to be licensed from Nokia.
Now that symbain is opensouce what whould be the platform ,…or real seance the GUI is it QT or is that still the S60 needs to be licenced
Hi Aditya,
The platform releases Symbian^2 and onwards will contain the latest S60 GUI, apps, middleware, and tools, as well as the contents of what used to be available separately under a Symbian OS licence.
So there will be no need for a separate S60 licence on top of the Symbian platform releases.
// David W.
Hopefully this will result in Symbian becoming usable again, I’d sworn off it since the terrible version on the N73, which drove me mad.
Good luck!
Hi David,
What about the low-end. There is always talk about S60 and the new releases you mentioned in your release plan.
But what will happen to S40 level OS?
What about Symbian Signed ?
Are there any plans to drop it, or at least relax it’s restrictions, like allowing user set more capabilities permissions without installing developer certificate ?
It’s not like it shown any noticeable benefits for end users or operators.
[...] Doch ein paar Tage, bevor Apple sein iPhone OS 3.0 vorstellen wird, hat die Symbian-Foundation angekündigt regelmäßig neue Versionen zu [...]
Hi Redactie,
>What about the low-end. There is always talk about S60 and the new releases you mentioned in your release plan. But what will happen to S40 level OS?
The future of S40 is a topic for Nokia to speak about, not a topic for Symbian.
However, it’s worth noting that Nokia senior managers have spoken on several recent occasions about S60 (ie Symbian Platform) being increasingly used for phones which would previously have used S40. See for example the Q4 earnings call.
The Symbian Platform is already used in many mid-range phones, and should find its way into more and more of these devices over time.
// David W.
Hi Serge,
>What about Symbian Signed? Are there any plans to drop it, or at least relax it…?
A number of options for improving the operation of Symbian Signed are under active consideration.
// David W.
[...] up by Nokia, et al to look after the soon-to-be open source Symbian OS – has been laying out its plans for Symbian development and Symbian [...]
Hi David Wood,
This is a great concept and very challenging, no doubt. But I wonder if this would last beyond a couple of years. Many reasons for my doubt, including marketing, as depending on the class of the product, the prospective Buyer might just not prefer the pace of the updates, whereby his/her ‘investment’ or ‘bling’ or ‘flash’ or ‘snob’ value would become ‘junk’ value in just abt the time it takes to know the product in depth and began using its features (afterall, most prospective Buyers, you have to agree, would take some time to get to know most features and begin using them and becoming familiar with them)!
I do not mean to say, this is a wrong decision, as competition is getting tougher and this is probably a better way out than most others. But would Symbian run out of roads to run, given the pace of development expected and also end up being more closer to a monopoly – like how nVidia has become (with just ATI to compete – which again has been aquired already). Eventually becoming a monopolistic player, though seems like a good idea, almost always turns out to be counter productive. I personally feel, having good and healthy competition is important for our own survival! I agree it sounds a bit wierd but considering the experiences so far of monopolistic companies – not many has survived for long without facing deep troubles.
But nonetheless, I congratulate you and the team on this brave endeavour and wish you the very best!
GOD Bless!
Hi David,
first, you seem to be very responsive on your blog and that’s appreciable, thanks.
It looks like that the Symbian foundation kind of inspired its development cycle on both Ubuntu and GNOME ones and I think you’re right. They both proved to work quite well.
Quoting you :
> (The Symbian Platform makes a commitment to preserve
> public APIs in between releases. However, we reserve
> the right to change platform APIs.)
> A device like the N95-3 has a large amount of additional
> software in it. Some of that extra software may well
> use platform APIs, as well as public APIs.
> When the operating system moves to another version,
> the platform APIs can change (although the public
> ones remain fixed).
I think a blog post about the different API level (sorry if it exists already and missed it) would be welcome. To clear up things a bit. If I understand well, what you call platform API is basically a private API, right ? or could it be a staggering API, preparing for inclusion as public API in a future release but not ready ? Also very welcome would be a statement on ABI compatibility. The GNOME project is doing a great job at that so you might inspire on that.
Quoting Jerry Fraud :
> Basically, nobody gives a damn of Symbian anymore
> ( did they ever did, from a developer POV?), when
> there are WAY better platforms to work with, in
> the mobile space.
[...]
> Gee, wonder why Symbian has a ZERO size development
> community, and is considered the most developer-hostile
> environment to work with.
Quoting you :
> The platform releases Symbian^2 and onwards will
> contain the latest S60 GUI, apps, middleware, and tools,
> as well as the contents of what used to be available
> separately under a Symbian OS licence.
Ok. Jerry Fraud is quite blunt but expose problems that should probably addressed. So, if I understand well, a new Symbian release will not just be about the proper OS only but also accompanying tools ? Could it be that a Symbian release would be about this tools with only little changes on the core OS ? Could you elaborate on that ?
Quoting you :
> Members of the public will initially have access to a
> considerably smaller number of the packages – under an
> open source licence (the EPL).
Will this include some drivers ? I mean, at the very start, will there be at least reference phone fully open that could be used for testing ?
Thanks,
keep up the good work.
Ludovic Danigo
David,
Not sure if you will read this as I am not sure how long you planned on monitoring this post. Just purchased an E71 (after having owned 3 previous Nokia phones, most recently a 6682). I hope you keep supporting OSes on older model phones like the E71. I undestand their will be limitations to what can be done over time, but I am afraid too much product churn will drive some users away from Smartphones completely. The new Netbooks are getting so small and feature rich that if slightly old smartphones are abandoned (i.e. not allowed to update to new features), I think people will just revert to using a very basic phone and tethering it to a Netbook to get all advanced features. I would hate for that to happen. Maybe as part of continuing to support new OSes on older platforms, you could create a small agent that could be downloaed and installed on older phones that could query the device and find out what software in the new OS would not be supported on the phone and what software on the phone would not be supported under the new OS. This would give phone users some information to determine if they did/did not want to upgrade. Just an idea, but may be helpful as you rapidly develop and migrate to newer OSes. Keep up the good work!
[...] denominator across its 33 ‘LiMo-compliant’ handsets, while market-leader S60 is opening up their roadmap and codebase and Android OS devices are coming out from from HTC, Dell, Huawei, Garmin, Fujitsu, [...]
[...] is considering options for improving Symbian Signed David Wood from Symbian Foundation answered a question about Symbian Signed (mandatory digital signature for all Symbian OS app with advanced capabilities) in comments to his [...]
[...] I confess to being surprised by the depth of feeling expressed in the comments to my posting Introducing the release plan, over the topic of software upgrades. Many people said, in [...]
Hi EVVJSK
>I am afraid too much product churn will drive some users away from Smartphones completely.
The roadmaps for the packages making up the Symbian Platform are full of new features (and potential new features). These features are present on the roadmap in answer to strong demand from customers and users (including phone manufacturers, network operators, and developers). The software is already very rich in possibilities – hence the wide range of new features under consideration.
It would be a failure if the steady introduction of these new features was seen, by the market, as “product churn”. If the new products really do satisfy customer requirements (including being sufficiently affordable, by one means or another), they should instead be seen as “remarkable product improvements”.
>The new Netbooks are getting so small and feature rich that if slightly old smartphones are abandoned (i.e. not allowed to update to new features), I think people will just revert to using a very basic phone and tethering it to a Netbook to get all advanced features
Aside: that outcome needn’t be an entirely bad development – especially if these Netbooks are running Symbian Platform software and are therefore taking full advantage of the network
>…create a small agent that could be downloaded and installed on older phones that could query the device and find out what software in the new OS would not be supported on the phone and what software on the phone would not be supported under the new OS. This would give phone users some information to determine if they did/did not want to upgrade.
Good idea! Third parties could take the lead here. I think that Redbend already have an agent that does something similar.
// David W.
Hi Ludovic,
>It looks like that the Symbian foundation kind of inspired its development cycle on both Ubuntu and GNOME ones and I think you’re right. They both proved to work quite well.
It’s true, there are similarities with the practice of “cadence” as practiced in other mature software programmes. Symbian has evolved towards practice of cadence over many years.
To quote the leading exponent of Lean Software Development, Mary Poppendieck:
In software development, the cadence is established through regular, short iterations and regular, closely spaced releases. Just as in bicycling, a steady, relatively fast cadence optimized for your situation is the best way to sustain high performance over the long term.
>I think a blog post about the different API level (sorry if it exists already and missed it) would be welcome. To clear up things a bit. If I understand well, what you call platform API is basically a private API, right
There will be material about the different API categories on the forthcoming new version of http://www.symbian.org. Here’s a quick explanation in the meantime: “public” APIs are expected to be maintained between releases; “platform APIs” are available for people creating software to be built into devices or to be included in the platform itself; “internal APIs” are for use only inside a single package.
>Could it be that a Symbian release would be about tools with only little changes on the core OS?
In general there will be significant enhancements in both tools and device-side software in a platform release. In some cases, we will make new tools available in between platform releases.
// David W.
Hi Binoy,
>after all, most prospective Buyers, you have to agree, would take some time to get to know most features and begin using them and becoming familiar with them
Thanks for the comments. One point in return is that we should expect new releases to offer, not just more features, but also features that are easier to discover, to understand, and to use.
Successful devices won’t feel to users as being difficult or complex or overloaded with features. Instead, they’ll feel somehow natural or intuitive and “just right”!
To ensure this outcome, the Symbian Foundation governance model includes a Council which is dedicated to improving UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience).
>Eventually becoming a monopolistic player, though seems like a good idea, almost always turns out to be counter productive.
To be clear, I neither expect nor desire the Symbian Foundation to become anything near being a monopoly supplier of mobile software platforms. As you point out, it’s better for everyone if there’s a real element of competition, to keep us all on our toes!
On the other hand, I do expect the Symbian Platform to become the most widely used software plaform on the planet.
// David W.
[...] The Symbian Foundation has set an aggressive development schedule with plans to release a new open source OS version every six months, with the latest version to hit Symbian smartphones by the end of 2009. The next release is to be based on the S60 user interface. Symbian is still the dominant leader in Smartphone OS marketshare, but they have been losing ground in the last year to cutting edge competitors like the Apple iPhone and RIM BlackBerry. The decision by Nokia to Open-Source Symbian was clearly an attempt to fix the fragmented nature of the user interface which has plagued the OS in the past, limiting it’s growth. If this will be enough to retain current market share and attract the lost faithful remains to be seen. Source: Symbian Foundation [...]
[...] checks with the Cupcake update. On the turn WinMo checks with 6.5 update, Symbian folds with plans for the next round, it looks like iPhone checks with Palm going ALL IN. I know all the rules are not followed here [...]
David,
Something that is somewhat related to upgrade cycle (or maybe that may provide functionality that would bridge the gap until an upgrade is available) is functionality provided by Skyfire mobile browser. I love the functionality that Skyfire browser adds to my E71. I would be interested to know if you plan to partner with Skyfire in any way (to insure they continue to bring functionality to Symbian/Nokia that currently can’t be handled by Symbian developers) or if you see them as a technology that hinders new phone sales? An example of Skyfire technology is the ability to display full Flash content on Symbian devices (as Flash Lite doesn’t seem to getting wide support from sites). Keep up the good work!
David,
I would like to thank you for a reply to some questions and concerns I have about the Symbian Platform.
You mention that we can upgrade the operating systems on our phones using s60 3rd but yet at the same time we can’t. I would believe that statement if I would be able to upgrade to s60 FP2. Now that is Nokia’s doing for what ever reason they may have but given the “Symbian Foundation” is an organization in itself it should not follow that method. I hope you have taken notice of a following theme here that a lot of symbian users in the future would like to be able to upgrade the OS with a current phone that they may be using at the time instead of having to buy a whole new phone just to attain the new version. Also I would think that any new upgrades of the OS would come from Symbian Foundation allowing a user on their own to upgrade and not come from the manufacturer of the handset, the manufacture of the handset what should do is just update the bios on the handset for any tweaks or problems there are. Just like windows and all the other computers out there.
Let developers freely create programs for the Symbian. Symbian signed though was meant to protect users it create a mess not only for developers but for end users such as myself and has allowed to developers to go elsewhere in support of other platforms. (thats how it feels like in the U.S. anyways)
Hopefully the GUI of future Symbian is newly designed and allowed to be more personalized but the user (IE font changes, back ground pictures, start up animation, cosing animation etc) . I hope well for it but look at other OS’s out there and start letting people use current handset to update s60 (sort like a min standard of phone hardware to run the newest s60 platform).
Coming from the 6620 to N95-3 though there were some changes such as a stand by apps and a new multimedia menu I feel like it was the same old OS underneath. Also bewilderment with why there is a FP1 and FP2 rift has left a bad taste in my mouth with symbian. Don’t do this in the future, if a phone is running symbian n^2 allow it to upgrade to the latest updated tweaked version, it’s not like Microsoft made everyone get a whole new computer to run XP Service Pack 3.
[...] the Symbian Foundation announcing their release plan for 2 releases of their platform each year, again I wonder if this indicates more software updates [...]
[...] Every six months, the Symbian Foundation identifies a group of these packages as working together particularly well (with specified versions): this group forms a Symbian platform release, with a name such as Symbian^2 or Symbian^3 – in general, Symbian^N, or S^N for short. Not every package features in every platform release. There are also packages of software that are hosted outside the foundation altogether (shown in pink in this picture). Some of these will be commercially licenced software. [...]
Sorry if this question has already been answered to, I did read this long thread but not all of it word by word (similar questions were though)
So about that question. I just bought Nokia E71 – 1 which has s60 3rd edition FP1 as you know. Anyway after I heard of this news, I first was thinking that this is just great. But is there a chance to upgrade my E71 OS to this new version? After all E71 is quite popular I think..
Also one other thing comes to my mind. Theres been lot talk about QT for S60 with C++, but will these new releases of Symbian allso give Python even better support that there was earlier? Maybe some decent Python-QT support and tools for programming..
[...] graphics that David provides, it’s rather clear. Essentially, the Symbian Foundation releases (Detailed here) will be modular – made up of various specific modules. A contacts module, a calendar module, a web [...]
[...] to indicate a simple approach required for Symbian Foundation to succeed in the US,“If you, release it they will [...]
For Symbian N^2/3 when hardened, I’d like to see some integration or downloadable add-on service pack supporting RSA 2stage logon support for corporate mail. Many corporate national banking institutions use RSA’s HardToken distribution to end users to have them access Exchange OWA or iNotes WebAccess for corporate mail. This allows the corporation much more security in utilizing a PIN + TokenCode (which changes every 60seconds randomly and encrypted and to be in sync with their servers. I’m not asking for Nokia or Symbian Foundation to license the connection to RSA’s servers, but to allow for this 2nd stage logon. I’ve worked with 2 corporations – 1 public a bank & the other private – an associate corporate restructuring company (McKinsey & Company); where use of RSA Software Token was intregrated into laptops to allow iNotes access remotely. Unfortunately with RoadSync, Mail for Exchange, and Lotus Traveler on ANY platform there is no direct support or solution to this. IF Symbian Foundation & Nokia wish to take on the corporate business market from RIM they really need to consider this option.
@prom1, thanks for your comment! I am preparing the Symbian Foundation roadmap for the security technology domain, based on input from the package owners.
Multi-factor authentication, such as the RSA token you describe, is indeed a valuable feature for enterprise use and on-line banking. It’s one of the subjects I plan to cover over on the SF Security blog sometime soon, also covering biometrics as a third type of authentication: something you know (password), something you have (token) and something you are (biometrics).
One of the interesting challenges for the Symbian Platform, compared to end-to-end service providers like RIM or, to some extent, Apple, is that we only implement one side of a conversation. The email client on the device will be talking to someone else’s server, so the client has to be implemented using a published protocol to communicate with the server.
This leads me to a question for you: do you know which published protocols support this two-stage authentication to the email server? The Symbian Platform does currently support POP and IMAP protocols, but it may be that support for two-stage authentication is only in a later version of the specifications.
One last thought – as I have repeated elsewhere, the foundation doesn’t have any product development engineers; the roadmaps for the various technology domains are entirely dependent on outside organisations or individuals stepping up and contributing their effort. If you know of an organisation that has this sort of technology, I would be happy to discuss with them the benefits they can get by contributing it!
[...] Reviewing the Release Plan By David Wood One of the most important threads of activity running through the inaugural meetings last week of all four Symbian Foundation Councils was a multi-angle review of the content of the release plan of forthcoming Symbian platform releases. [...]