The Symbian OS platform is formed of two components: one being themicrokernel-based operating system with its associatedlibraries, and the other being theuser interface (asmiddleware), which provides the graphical shell atop the OS.[8] The most prominent user interface was theS60 (formerly Series 60) platform built by Nokia, first released in 2002 and powering most Nokia Symbian devices.UIQ was a competing user interface mostly used by Motorola and Sony Ericsson that focused onpen-based devices, rather than a traditional keyboard interface from S60. Another interface was theMOAP(S) platform from carrierNTT DoCoMo in the Japanese market.[9][10] Applications for these different interfaces were not compatible with each other, despite each being built atop Symbian OS. Nokia became the largest shareholder of Symbian Ltd. in 2004 and purchased the entire company in 2008.[11] The non-profitSymbian Foundation was then created to make aroyalty-free successor to Symbian OS. Seeking to unify the platform, S60 became the Foundation's favoured interface and UIQ stopped development. Thetouchscreen-focused Symbian^1 (or S60 5th Edition) was created as a result in 2009. Symbian^2 (based on MOAP) was used by NTT DoCoMo, one of the members of the Foundation, for the Japanese market. Symbian^3 was released in 2010 as the successor to S60 5th Edition, by which time it became fullyfree software. The transition from a proprietary operating system to a free software project is believed to be one of the largest in history.[12] Symbian^3 received the Anna and Belle updates in 2011.[13][14]
The Symbian Foundation disintegrated in late 2010 and Nokia took back control of the OS development.[15][16] In February 2011, Nokia, by then the only remaining company still supporting Symbian outside Japan, announced that it would useMicrosoft'sWindows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform, while Symbian would be gradually wound down.[17][18] Two months later, Nokia moved the OS to proprietary licensing, only collaborating with the Japanese OEMs[19] and later outsourced Symbian development toAccenture.[6][20] Although support was promised until 2016, including two major planned updates, by 2012 Nokia had mostly abandoned development and most Symbian developers had already left Accenture,[21] and in January 2014 Nokia stopped accepting new or changed Symbian software from developers.[22] TheNokia 808 PureView in 2012 was officially the last Symbian smartphone from Nokia.[23] NTT DoCoMo continued releasing OPP(S) (Operator Pack Symbian, successor of MOAP) devices in Japan, which still act as middleware on top of Symbian.[24] Phones running this include theF-07F [ja] fromFujitsu andSH-07F [ja] fromSharp in 2014.
Symbian originated fromEPOC32, an operating system created byPsion in the 1990s. In June 1998, Psion Software becameSymbian Ltd., a major joint venture between Psion and phone manufacturersEricsson,Motorola, andNokia.
With no major competition in the smartphone OS market (Palm OS andWindows Mobile were comparatively small players), Symbian held 67% of the global smartphone market share in 2006.[25]
Despite its sizable market share, Symbian was at various stages difficult to develop for: First (around early-to-mid-2000s) due to the complexity of the programming languages available,Open Programming Language (OPL) and SymbianC++, and of the OS; then the stubborn developer bureaucracy, along with high prices of variousintegrated development environments (IDEs) andsoftware development kits (SDKs), which were prohibitive for independent or very small developers; and then the subsequent fragmentation, which was in part caused by infighting among and within manufacturers, each of which also had their own IDEs and SDKs. All of this discouraged third-party developers, and served to cause the native app ecosystem for Symbian not to evolve to a scale later reached by Apple's App Store or Android's Google Play.
By contrast, iPhone OS (renamediOS in 2010) andAndroid had comparatively simpler design, provided easier and much more centralized infrastructure to create and obtain third-party apps, offered certain developer tools and programming languages with a manageable level of complexity, and having abilities such as multitasking and graphics to meet future consumer demands.
Although Symbian was difficult to program for, this issue could be worked around by creating Java Mobile Edition apps, ostensibly under a "write once, run anywhere" slogan.[26] This wasn't always the case because of fragmentation due to different device screen sizes and differences in levels of Java ME support on various devices.
Nokia became the major contributor to Symbian's code, since it then possessed the development resources for both the Symbian OS core and the user interface. Since then Nokia maintained its own code repository for the platform development, regularly releasing its development to the public repository.[28] Symbian was intended to be developed by a community led by theSymbian Foundation, which was first announced in June 2008 and which officially launched in April 2009. Its objective was to publish thesource code for the entire Symbian platform under the EPL. This was accomplished on 4 February 2010; the Symbian Foundation reported this event to be the largest codebase moved toFree software in history.[27][29]
However, some important components within Symbian OS were licensed from third parties, which prevented the foundation from publishing the full source under EPL immediately; instead much of the source was published under a more restrictive Symbian Foundation License (SFL) and access to the full source code was limited to member companies only, although membership was open to any organisation.[30] Also, theFree softwareQt framework was introduced to Symbian in 2010, as the primary upgrade path toMeeGo, which was to be the next mobile operating system to replace and supplant Symbian on high-end devices; Qt was by its nature free and very convenient to develop with. Several other frameworks were deployed to the platform, among themStandard C and C++,Python,Ruby, andAdobe Flash Lite. IDEs and SDKs were developed and then released for free, andapplication software (app) development for Symbian picked up.
In November 2010, the Symbian Foundation announced that due to changes in global economic and market conditions (and also a lack of support from members such asSamsung[31] andSony Ericsson), it would transition to a licensing-only organisation;[30] Nokia announced it would take over the stewardship of the Symbian platform. Symbian Foundation would remain the trademark holder and licensing entity and would only have non-executive directors involved.
With market share sliding from 39% in Q32010 to 31% in Q42010,[32] Symbian was losing ground to iOS and Android quickly, eventually falling behind Android in Q42010.[33]Stephen Elop was appointed the CEO of Nokia in September 2010, and on 11 February 2011, he announced a partnership withMicrosoft that would see Nokia adoptWindows Phone as its primary smartphone platform,[34] and Symbian would be gradually phased out, together with MeeGo.[18] As a consequence, Symbian's market share fell, and application developers for Symbian dropped out rapidly. Research in June 2011 indicated that over 39% of mobile developers using Symbian at the time of publication were planning to abandon the platform.[35]
By 5 April 2011, Nokia ceased to makefree any portion of the Symbian software and reduced its collaboration to a small group of preselected partners in Japan.[5] Source code released under the original EPL remains available in third party repositories,[36] including a full set of all public code from the project as of 7 December 2010.[37]
On 22 June 2011, Nokia had made an agreement withAccenture for an outsourcing program. Accenture will provide Symbian-based software development and support services to Nokia through 2016.[20] The transfer of Nokia employees to Accenture was completed on 30 September 2011 and 2,800 Nokia employees became Accenture employees as of October 2011.[6]
Nokia had terminated its support of software development and maintenance for Symbian with effect from 1 January 2014, thereafter refusing to publish new or changed Symbian applications or content in the Nokia Store and terminating its 'Symbian Signed' program for software certification.[38]
Symbian has had a native graphics toolkit since its inception, known as AVKON (formerly known asSeries 60). S60 was designed to be manipulated by a keyboard-like interface metaphor, such as the ~15-key augmented telephone keypad, or the mini-QWERTY keyboards. AVKON-based software is binary-compatible with Symbian versions up to and including Symbian^3.
Symbian^3 includes theQt framework, which became the recommended user interface toolkit for new applications. Qt can also be installed on older Symbian devices.
Symbian^4 was planned to introduce a new GUI library framework specifically designed for a touch-based interface, known as "UI Extensions for Mobile" or UIEMO (internal project name "Orbit"), which was built on top of Qt Widget; a preview was released in January 2010, however in October 2010 Nokia announced that Orbit/UIEMO had been cancelled.
Nokia later recommended that developers useQt Quick withQML, the new high-level declarative UI and scripting framework for creating visually rich touchscreen interfaces that allowed development for both Symbian andMeeGo; it would be delivered to existing Symbian^3 devices as a Qt update. When more applications gradually feature a user interface reworked in Qt, the legacy S60 framework (AVKON) would be deprecated and no longer included with new devices at some point, thus breaking binary compatibility with older S60 applications.[39][40]
Symbian^3 and earlier have a built-inWebKit basedbrowser. Symbian was the first mobile platform to make use of WebKit (in June 2005).[41] Some older Symbian models haveOpera Mobile as their default browser.
Nokia released a new browser with the release of Symbian Anna with improved speed and an improved user interface.[42]
Symbian had strong localization support enabling manufacturers and 3rd party application developers to localize Symbian based products to support global distribution. Nokia made languages available in the device, inlanguage packs: a set of languages which cover those commonly spoken in the area where a device variant is to be sold. All language packs have in common English, or a locally relevant dialect of it. The last release, Symbian Belle, supports these 48 languages, with [dialects], and (scripts):
From 2010, Symbian switched to using standard C++ withQt as the main SDK, which can be used with eitherQt Creator orCarbide.c++. Qt supports the older Symbian/S60 3rd (starting with Feature Pack 1, a.k.a. S60 3.1) and Symbian/S60 5th Edition (a.k.a. S60 5.01b) releases, as well as the new Symbian platform. It also supportsMaemo andMeeGo, Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.[43][44]
Web Runtime (WRT) is a portable application framework that allows creatingwidgets on theS60 Platform; it is an extension to the S60WebKit based browser that allows launching multiple browser instances as separate JavaScript applications.[45][46]
As of 2010, the SDK for Symbian is standard C++, usingQt. It can be used with eitherQt Creator, or Carbide (the older IDE previously used for Symbian development).[43][47] A phone simulator allows testing of Qt apps. Apps compiled for the simulator are compiled to native code for the development platform, rather than having to be emulated.[48] Application development can either use C++ orQML.
As Symbian OS is written in C++ using Symbian Software's coding standards, it is possible to develop using Symbian C++, although it is not a standard implementation. Before the release of the Qt SDK, this was the standard development environment. There were multiple platforms based on Symbian OS that providedsoftware development kits (SDKs) for application developers wishing to target Symbian OS devices, the main ones being UIQ and S60. Individual phone products, or families, often had SDKs or SDK extensions downloadable from the maker's website too.
The SDKs contain documentation, the header files and library files needed to build Symbian OS software, and a Windows-based emulator ("WINS"). Up until Symbian OS version 8, the SDKs also included a version of theGNU Compiler Collection (GCC) compiler (across-compiler) needed to build software to work on the device.
Symbian OS 9 and the Symbian platform use a newapplication binary interface (ABI) and needed a different compiler. A choice of compilers is available including a newer version of GCC (see external links below).
Symbian C++ programming has a steeplearning curve, as Symbian C++ requires the use of special techniques such as descriptors, active objects and the cleanup stack. This can make even relatively simple programs initially harder to implement than in other environments. It is possible that the techniques, developed for the much more restricted mobile hardware and compilers of the 1990s, caused extra complexity in source code because programmers are required to concentrate on low-level details instead of more application-specific features. As of 2010, these issues are no longer the case when using standard C++, with the Qt SDK.
Symbian C++ programming is commonly done with anintegrated development environment (IDE). For earlier versions of Symbian OS, the commercial IDECodeWarrior for Symbian OS was favoured. The CodeWarrior tools were replaced during 2006 byCarbide.c++, anEclipse-based IDE developed by Nokia. Carbide.c++ is offered in four different versions: Express, Developer, Professional, and OEM, with increasing levels of capability. Fully featured software can be created and released with the Express edition, which is free. Features such as UI design, crash debugging etc. are available in the other, charged-for, editions.Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 are also supported via theCarbide.vs plugin.
Visual Basic programmers can useNS Basic to develop apps for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 devices.
In the past,Visual Basic,Visual Basic .NET, andC# development for Symbian were possible throughAppForge Crossfire, a plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio. On 13 March 2007 AppForge ceased operations; Oracle purchased the intellectual property, but announced that they did not plan to sell or provide support for former AppForge products. Net60, a .NET compact framework for Symbian, which is developed by redFIVElabs, is sold as a commercial product. With Net60, VB.NET, and C# (and other) source code is compiled into an intermediate language (IL) which is executed within the Symbian OS using a just-in-time compiler. (As of 18 January 2010, RedFiveLabs has ceased development of Net60 with this announcement on their landing page: "At this stage we are pursuing some options to sell the IP so that Net60 may continue to have a future.")
There is also a version of aBorland IDE for Symbian OS. Symbian development is also possible onLinux andmacOS using tools and methods developed by the community, partly enabled by Symbian releasing the source code for key tools. A plug-in that allows development of Symbian OS applications in Apple'sXcode IDE for Mac OS X was available.[50]
Java ME applications for Symbian OS are developed using standard techniques and tools such as theSun Java Wireless Toolkit (formerly the J2ME Wireless Toolkit). They are packaged as JAR (and possibly JAD) files. Both CLDC and CDC applications can be created withNetBeans. Other tools includeSuperWaba, which can be used to build Symbian 7.0 and 7.0s programs using Java.
Nokia S60 phones can also runPython scripts when the interpreterPython for S60 is installed, with a custom made API that allows for Bluetooth support and such. There is also an interactive console to allow the user to write Python scripts directly from the phone.
Once developed, Symbian applications need to find a route to customers' mobile phones. They are packaged inSIS files which may be installed over-the-air, via PC connect, Bluetooth or on a memory card. An alternative is to partner with a phone manufacturer and have the software included on the phone itself. Applications must be Symbian Signed for Symbian OS 9.x to make use of certain capabilities (system capabilities, restricted capabilities and device manufacturer capabilities).[51] Applications could be signed for free in 2010.[52]
Symbian's design is subdivided intotechnology domains,[53] each of which comprises a set of softwarepackages.[54] Each technology domain has its own roadmap, and the Symbian Foundation has a team of technology managers who manage these technology domain roadmaps.
Every package is allocated to exactly one technology domain, based on the general functional area to which the package contributes and by which it may be influenced. By grouping related packages by themes, the Symbian Foundation hopes to encourage a strong community to form around them and to generate discussion and review.
The Symbian System Model[55] illustrates the scope of each of the technology domains across the platform packages.
Packages are owned and maintained by a package owner, a named individual from an organization member of the Symbian Foundation, who accepts code contributions from the wider Symbian community and is responsible for package.
The Symbian kernel (EKA2) supports sufficiently fastreal-time response to build a single-core phone around it – that is, a phone in which a single processor core executes both the userapplications and thesignalling stack.[56] The real-time kernel has amicrokernel architecture containing only the minimum, most basic primitives and functionality, for maximum robustness, availability and responsiveness. It has been termed ananokernel, because it needs an extended kernel to implement any other abstractions. It contains ascheduler,memory management anddevice drivers, withnetworking, telephony, andfile system support services in the OS Services Layer or the Base Services Layer. The inclusion of device drivers means the kernel is not atrue microkernel.
Symbian featurespre-emptive multitasking andmemory protection, like other operating systems (especially those created for use on desktop computers). EPOC's approach to multitasking was inspired byVMS and is based on asynchronous server-based events.
Symbian OS was created with three systems design principles in mind:
the integrity and security of user data is paramount
user time must not be wasted
all resources are scarce
To best follow these principles, Symbian uses amicrokernel, has a request-and-callback approach to services, and maintains separation between user interface and engine. The OS is optimised for low-power battery-based devices and forread-only memory (ROM)-based systems (e.g. features like XIP and re-entrancy in shared libraries). The OS, andapplication software, follows anobject-oriented programming design namedmodel–view–controller (MVC).
Later OS iterations diluted this approach in response to market demands, notably with the introduction of a real-time kernel and a platform security model in versions 8 and 9.
There is a strong emphasis on conserving resources which is exemplified by Symbian-specific programming idioms likedescriptors and a cleanup stack. Similar methods exist to conserve storage space. Further, all Symbian programming is event-based, and thecentral processing unit (CPU) is switched into a low power mode when applications are not directly dealing with an event. This is done via a programming idiom calledactive objects. Similarly the Symbian approach to threads and processes is driven by reducing overheads.
The Base Services Layer is the lowest level reachable by user-side operations; it includes theFile Server and User Library, a Plug-InFramework which manages all plug-ins, Store, Central Repository,DBMS and cryptographic services. It also includes the Text Window Server and the Text Shell: the two basic services from which a completely functional port can be created without the need for any higher layer services.
Symbian has amicrokernel architecture, which means that the minimum necessary is within the kernel to maximise robustness, availability and responsiveness. It contains ascheduler,memory management and device drivers, but other services like networking, telephony andfile system support are placed in the OS Services Layer or the Base Services Layer. The inclusion of device drivers means the kernel is not atrue microkernel. TheEKA2 real-time kernel, which has been termed ananokernel, contains only the most basic primitives and requires an extended kernel to implement any other abstractions.
Symbian is designed to emphasise compatibility with other devices, especially removable media file systems. Early development of EPOC led to adoptingFile Allocation Table (FAT) as the internal file system, and this remains, but an object-oriented persistence model was placed over the underlying FAT to provide aPOSIX-style interface and a streaming model. The internal data formats rely on using the same APIs that create the data to run all file manipulations. This has resulted in data-dependence and associated difficulties with changes anddata migration.
There is a large networking and communication subsystem, which has three main servers called: ETEL (EPOC telephony), ESOCK (EPOC sockets) and C32 (responsible for serial communication). Each of these has a plug-in scheme. For example, ESOCK allows different ".PRT" protocol modules to implement various networking protocol schemes. The subsystem also contains code that supports short-range communication links, such asBluetooth,IrDA andUSB.
There is also a large volume ofuser interface (UI) Code. Only the base classes and substructure were contained in Symbian OS, while most of the actual user interfaces were maintained by third parties. This is no longer the case. The three major UIs – S60, UIQ and MOAP – were contributed to Symbian in 2009. Symbian also contains graphics, text layout and font rendering libraries.
All native Symbian C++ applications are built up from three framework classes defined by the application architecture: an application class, a document class and an application user interface class. These classes create the fundamental application behaviour. The remaining needed functions, the application view, data model and data interface, are created independently and interact solely through their APIs with the other classes.
Many other things do not yet fit into this model – for example,SyncML,Java ME providing another set of APIs on top of most of the OS andmultimedia. Many of these are frameworks, and vendors are expected to supply plug-ins to these frameworks from third parties (for example,Helix Player for multimediacodecs). This has the advantage that the APIs to such areas of functionality are the same on many phone models, and that vendors get a lot of flexibility. But it means that phone vendors needed to do a great deal of integration work to make a Symbian OS phone.
Symbian includes a reference user-interface called "TechView". It provides a basis for starting customisation and is the environment in which much Symbian test and example code runs. It is very similar to the user interface from thePsion Series 5 personal organiser and is not used for any production phone user interface.
The boot process of Symbian is started from the ROM bootloader, later the ROM bootloader load Symbian fromflash.[57]
Symbian, as it advanced to OS version 7.0, spun off into several differentgraphical user interfaces, each backed by a certain company or group of companies. UnlikeAndroid OS's cosmetic GUIs, Symbian GUIs are referred to as "platforms" due to more significant modifications and integrations. Things became more complicated when applications developed for different Symbian GUI platforms were not compatible with each other, and this led to OS fragmentation.[58]
User Interfaces platforms that run on or are based on Symbian OS include:
S60, Symbian, also called Series 60. It was backed mainly by Nokia. There are several editions of this platform, appearing first as S60 (1st Edition) onNokia 7650. It was followed by S60 2nd Edition (e.g.Nokia N70), S60 3rd Edition (e.g.Nokia N73) and S60 5th Edition (which introduced touch UI e.g.Nokia N97). The name, S60, was changed to just Symbian after the formation of Symbian Foundation, and subsequently called Symbian^1, 2 and 3.
Series 90 Touch and button based. The only phone using this platform isNokia 7710.
UIQ backed mainly bySony Ericsson and thenMotorola. It is compatible with both buttons and touch/stylus based inputs. The last major release version is UIQ3.1 in 2008, onSony Ericsson G900. It was discontinued after the formation of Symbian Foundation, and the decision to consolidate different Symbian UI variants into one led to the adoption of S60 as the version going forward.[59]
MOAP (Mobile Oriented Applications Platform) [Japan Only] used byFujitsu,Mitsubishi,Sony Ericsson andSharp-developed phones forNTT DoCoMo. It uses an interface developed specifically for DoCoMo'sFOMA "Freedom of Mobile Access" network brand and is based on the UI from earlier Fujitsu FOMA models. The user cannot install new C++ applications. (Japan Only)
In Q1 2004 2.4 million Symbian phones were shipped, double the number as in Q1 2003. Symbian Ltd. was particularly impressed by progress made in Japan.[78]
3.7 million devices were shipped in Q3 2004, a growth of 201% compared to Q3 2003 and market share growing from 30.5% to 50.2%. However, in the United States it was much less popular, with a 6% market share in Q3 2004, well behindPalm OS (43%) andWindows Mobile (25%). This has been attributed to North American customers preferring wirelessPDAs over smartphones, as well as Nokia's low popularity there.[79]
On 16 November 2006, the 100 millionthsmartphone running the OS was shipped.[80] As of 21 July 2009, more than 250 million devices running Symbian OS had been produced.[81]
In 2006, Symbian had 73% of the smartphone market,[82] compared with 22.1% of the market in the second quarter of 2011.[83]
By the end of May 2006, 10 million Symbian-powered phones were sold in Japan, representing 11% of Symbian's total worldwide shipments of 89 million.[84] By November 2007 the figure was 30 million, achieving a market share of 65% by June 2007 in the Japanese market.[85]
Symbian has lost market share over the years as the market has dramatically grown, with new competing platforms entering the market, though its sales have increased during the same timeframe. E.g., although Symbian's share of the global smartphone market dropped from 52.4% in 2008 to 47.2% in 2009, shipments of Symbian devices grew 4.8%, from 74.9 million units to 78.5 million units.[86] From Q2 2009 to Q2 2010, shipments of Symbian devices grew 41.5%, by 8.0 million units, from 19,178,910 units to 27,129,340; compared to an increase of 9.6 million units for Android, 3.3 million units for RIM, and 3.2 million units for Apple.[87]
Prior reports on device shipments as published in February 2010 showed that the Symbian devices formed a 47.2% share of the smart mobile devices shipped in 2009, withRIM having 20.8%, Apple having 15.1% (viaiOS), Microsoft having 8.8% (viaWindows CE andWindows Mobile) andAndroid having 4.7%.[86]
In the number of "smart mobile device" sales, Symbian devices were the market leaders for 2010. Statistics showed that Symbian devices formed a 37.6% share of smart mobile devices sold, withAndroid having 22.7%,RIM having 16%, and Apple having 15.7% (viaiOS).[88] Some estimates indicate that the number of mobile devices shipped with the Symbian OS up to the end of Q2 2010 is 385 million.[89]
The users of Symbian in the countries with non-Latin alphabets (such as Russia, Ukraine and others) have been criticizing the complicated method of language switching for many years.[95] For example, if a user wants to type a Latin letter, they must call the menu, click the languages item, use arrow keys to choose, for example, the English language from among many other languages, and then press the 'OK' button. After typing the Latin letter, the user must repeat the procedure to return to their native keyboard. This method slows down typing significantly. In touch-phones and QWERTY phones the procedure is slightly different but remains time-consuming. All other mobile operating systems, as well as Nokia's S40 phones, enable switching between two initially selected languages by one click or a single gesture.
Early versions of the firmware for the originalNokia N97, running on Symbian^1/Series 60 5th Edition have been heavily criticized as buggy (also contributed by the low amount ofRAM installed in the phone).[96]
In November 2010, Smartphone blogAll About Symbian criticized the performance ofSymbian's default web browser and recommended the alternative browserOpera Mobile.[97] Nokia's Senior Vice PresidentJo Harlow promised an updated browser in the first quarter of 2011.[98]
There are many different versions and editions of Symbian, which led to fragmentation. Apps and software may be incompatible when installed across different versions of Symbian.[99]
Symbian OS is subject to a variety of viruses, the best known of which isCabir. Usually these send themselves from phone to phone by Bluetooth. So far, none have exploited any flaws in Symbian OS. Instead, they have all asked the user whether they want to install the software, with somewhat prominent warnings that it can't be trusted, although some rely onsocial engineering, often in the form of messages that come with the malware:rogue software purporting to be a utility, game, or some other application for Symbian.
However, with a view that the average mobile phone user shouldn't have to worry about security, Symbian OS 9.x adopted aUnix-stylecapability model (permissions per process, not per object). Installed software is theoretically unable to do damaging things (such as costing the user money by sending network data) without being digitally signed – thus making it traceable. Commercial developers who can afford the cost can apply to have their software signed via the Symbian Signed program. Developers also have the option of self-signing their programs. However, the set of available features does not include access to Bluetooth, IrDA, GSM CellID, voice calls, GPS and few others. Some operators opted to disable all certificates other than the Symbian Signed certificates.
Some other hostile programs are listed below, but all of them still require the input of the user to run.
Drever.A is a malicious SIS filetrojan that attempts to disable the automatic startup from Simworks and Kaspersky Symbian Anti-Virus applications.
Locknut.B is a malicious SIS file trojan that pretends to be a patch for Symbian S60 mobile phones. When installed, it drops[clarification needed] a binary that will crash a critical system service component. This will prevent any application from being launched in the phone.
Mabir.A is basicallyCabir with added MMS functionality. The two are written by the same author,[citation needed] and the code shares many similarities. It spreads usingBluetooth via the same routine as early variants of Cabir. As Mabir.A activates, it will search for the first phone it finds, and starts sending copies of itself to that phone.
Fontal.A is an SIS file trojan that installs a corrupted file which causes the phone to fail at reboot. If the user tries to reboot the infected phone, it will be permanently stuck on the reboot screen, and cannot be used without disinfection – that is, the use of the reformat key combination which causes the phone to lose all data. Being a trojan, Fontal cannot spread by itself – the most likely way for the user to get infected would be to acquire the file from untrusted sources, and then install it to the phone, inadvertently or otherwise.
A new form of malware threat to Symbian OS in the form of 'cooked firmware' was demonstrated at the International Malware Conference,Malcon, December 2010, by Indian hacker Atul Alex.[100][101]
Symbian OS 9.x devices can be hacked to remove the platform security introduced in OS 9.1 onwards, allowing users to execute unsigned code.[102] This allows altering system files, and access to previously locked areas of the OS. The hack was criticised by Nokia for potentially increasing thethreat posed by mobile viruses asunsigned code can be executed.[103]
EPOC16, originally simply named EPOC, was the operating system developed by Psion in the late 1980s and early 1990s for Psion's "SIBO" (SIxteen Bit Organisers) devices. All EPOC16 devices featured an8086-family processor and a16-bit architecture. EPOC16 was a single-userpreemptive multitasking operating system, written in Intel 8086assembly language andC and designed to be delivered inread-only memory (ROM). It supported a simple programming language namedOpen Programming Language (OPL) and anintegrated development environment (IDE) named OVAL. SIBO devices included the: MC200, MC400,Series 3 (1991–98), Series 3a, Series 3c, Series 3mx, Siena, Workabout, and Workabout mx. The MC400 and MC200, the first EPOC16 devices, shipped in 1989.
EPOC16 featured a primarily monochrome, keyboard-operated graphical interface[104] – the hardware for which it was designed originally hadpointer input in the form of a digitiser panel.
In the late 1990s, the operating system was referred to asEPOC16 to distinguish it from Psion's then-new EPOC32 OS.
EPOC32 (releases 1 to 5)
The first version of EPOC32, Release 1 appeared on the PsionSeries 5 ROM v1.0 in 1997. Later, ROM v1.1 featured Release 3. (Release 2 was never publicly available.) These were followed by thePsion Series 5mx,Revo / Revo plus,Psion Series 7 /netBook and netPad (which all featured Release 5).
The EPOC32 operating system, at the time simply referred to as EPOC, was later renamed Symbian OS. Adding to the confusion with names, before the change to Symbian, EPOC16 was often referred to as SIBO to distinguish it from the "new" EPOC. Despite the similarity of the names, EPOC32 and EPOC16 were completely different operating systems, EPOC32 being written in C++ from a new codebase with development beginning during the mid-1990s.
EPOC32 was apre-emptive multitasking, single user operating system with memory protection, which encourages the application developer to separate their program into an engine and aninterface. The Psion line of PDAs come with agraphical user interface called EIKON which is specifically tailored for handheld machines with a keyboard (thus looking perhaps more similar to desktop GUIs than palmtop GUIs[105]). However, one of EPOC's characteristics is the ease with which new GUIs can be developed based on a core set of GUI classes, a feature which has been widely explored fromEricsson R380 and onwards.
EPOC32 was originally developed for theARM family of processors, including theARM7,ARM9,StrongARM and Intel'sXScale, but can be compiled towards target devices using several other processor types.
During the development of EPOC32, Psion planned to license EPOC to third-party device manufacturers, and spin off its software division as Psion Software. One of the first licensees was the short-livedGeofox, which halted production with less than 1,000 units sold.Ericsson marketed a rebranded Psion Series 5mx called theMC218, and later created the EPOC Release 5.1 basedsmartphone, theR380.Oregon Scientific also released a budget EPOC device, theOsaris (notable as the only EPOC device to ship with Release 4).
Work started on the 32-bit version in late 1994.
TheSeries 5 device, released in June 1997, used the first iterations of the EPOC32 OS, codenamed "Protea", and the "Eikon" graphical user interface.
The Oregon ScientificOsaris was the only PDA to use the ER4.
The first phone using ER5u, theEricsson R380 was released in November 2000. It was not anopen device: software could not be installed. Notably, several never-released Psion prototypes for next generation PDAs, including a Bluetooth Revo successor codenamedConan, were using ER5u. The 'u' in the name refers to it supportingUnicode.
In June 1998, Psion Software becameSymbian Ltd., a major joint venture between Psion and phone manufacturersEricsson,Motorola, andNokia. As of Release 6, EPOC was renamed Symbian OS.
Symbian OS 6.0 and 6.1
The OS was renamed Symbian OS and envisioned as the base for a new range ofsmartphones. This release is sometimes called ER6. Psion gave 130 key staff to the new company and retained a 31% shareholding in the spin-off.
The first 'open' Symbian OS phone, theNokia 9210 Communicator, was released in June 2001.Bluetooth support was added. Almost 500,000 Symbian phones were shipped in 2001, rising to 2.1 million the following year.
Development of different UIs was made generic with a "reference design strategy" for either 'smartphone' or 'communicator' devices, subdivided further into keyboard- or tablet-based designs. Two reference UIs (DFRDs or Device Family Reference Designs) were shipped: Quartz and Crystal. The former was merged with Ericsson'sRonneby design and became the basis for theUIQ interface; the latter reached the market as the NokiaSeries 80 UI.
Later DFRDs were Sapphire, Ruby, and Emerald. Only Sapphire came to market, evolving into the Pearl DFRD and finally the NokiaSeries 60 UI, a keypad-based 'square' UI for the first true smartphones. The first one of them was theNokia 7650 smartphone (featuring Symbian OS 6.1), which was also the first with a built-in camera, with VGA (0.3 Mpx = 640×480) resolution. Other notable S60 Symbian 6.1 devices are theNokia 3650, the short livedSendo X andSiemens SX1, the first and the last Symbian phone from Siemens.
Despite these efforts to be generic, the UI was clearly split between competing companies: Crystal or Sapphire was Nokia, Quartz was Ericsson. DFRD was abandoned by Symbian in late 2002, as part of an active retreat from UI development in favour ofheadless delivery. Pearl was given to Nokia, Quartz development was spun off as UIQ Technology AB, and work with Japanese firms was quickly folded into theMOAP standard.
Symbian OS 7.0 and 7.0s
First shipped in 2003. This is an important Symbian release which appeared with all contemporary user interfaces includingUIQ (Sony Ericsson P800, P900, P910, Motorola A925, A1000),Series 80 (Nokia 9300, 9500),Series 90 (Nokia 7710),Series 60 (Nokia 3230, 6260, 6600, 6670, 7610) as well as severalFOMA phones in Japan. It also addedEDGE support andIPv6. Java support was changed frompJava and JavaPhone to one based on the Java ME standard.
One million Symbian phones were shipped in Q1 2003, with the rate increasing to one million a month by the end of 2003.
Symbian OS 7.0s was a version of 7.0 special adapted to have greaterbackward compatibility with Symbian OS 6.x, partly for compatibility between the Communicator 9500 and its predecessor the Communicator 9210.
In 2004, Psion sold its stake in Symbian. The same year, the firstworm for mobile phones using Symbian OS,Cabir, was developed, which usedBluetooth to spread itself to nearby phones. SeeCabir andSymbian OS threats.
Symbian OS 8.0
First shipped in 2004, one of its advantages would have been a choice of two different kernels (EKA1 or EKA2). However, the EKA2 kernel version did not ship until Symbian OS 8.1b. The kernels behave more or less identically from user-side, but are internally very different. EKA1 was chosen by some manufacturers to maintain compatibility with old device drivers, while EKA2 was areal-time kernel. 8.0b was deproductised in 2003.
Also included were new APIs to supportCDMA,3G, two-way data streaming,DVB-H, andOpenGL ES withvector graphics and direct screen access.
Symbian OS 8.1
An improved version of 8.0, this was available in 8.1a and 8.1b versions, with EKA1 and EKA2 kernels respectively. The 8.1b version, with EKA2's single-chip phone support but no additional security layer, was popular among Japanese phone companies desiring the real-time support but not allowing open application installation.
The first and maybe the most famous smartphone featuring Symbian OS 8.1a wasNokia N90 in 2005,Nokia's first inNseries.
Symbian OS 9.0
Symbian OS 9.0 was used for internal Symbian purposes only. It was de-productised in 2004. 9.0 marked the end of the road for EKA1. 8.1a is the final EKA1 version of Symbian OS.
Symbian OS has generally maintained reasonablebinary code compatibility. In theory the OS was BC from ER1-ER5, then from 6.0 to 8.1b. Substantial changes were needed for 9.0, related to tools and security, but this should be a one-off event. The move from requiring ARMv4 to requiring ARMv5 did not break backwards compatibility.
Symbian OS 9.1
Released early 2005. It includes many new security related features, including platform security module facilitatingmandatory code signing. The new ARMEABI binary model means developers need to retool and the security changes mean they may have to recode.S60 platform 3rd Edition phones have Symbian OS 9.1. Sony Ericsson is shipping theM600 andP990 based on Symbian OS 9.1. The earlier versions had a defect where the phone hangs temporarily after the owner sent a large number of SMS'es. However, on 13 September 2006, Nokia released a small program to fix this defect.[106] Support forBluetooth 2.0 was also added.
Symbian 9.1 introduced capabilities and a Platform Security framework. To access certain APIs, developers have to sign their application with adigital signature. Basic capabilities are user-grantable and developers canself-sign them, while more advanced capabilities require certification and signing via the Symbian Signed program, which uses independent 'test houses' and phone manufacturers for approval. For example, file writing is a user-grantable capability while access to Multimedia Device Drivers require phone manufacturer approval. A TC TrustCenterACS Publisher ID certificate is required by the developer for signing applications.
Symbian OS 9.2
Released Q1 2006. Support forOMA Device Management 1.2 (was 1.1.2). Vietnamese language support.S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 phones have Symbian OS 9.2.
Used as the basis for Symbian^1, the first Symbian platform release.The release is also better known asS60 5th edition, as it is the bundled interface for the OS.
Symbian^2
Symbian^2 is a version of Symbian that only used by Japanese manufacturers[citation needed], started selling in Japan market since May 2010.[107] The version is not used by Nokia.[108]
Symbian^3 (Symbian OS 9.5) and Symbian Anna
Symbian^3 is an improvement over previous S60 5th Edition and features single touch menus in the user interface, as well as new Symbian OS kernel with hardware-accelerated graphics; further improvements will come in the first half of 2011 including portrait qwerty keyboard, a new browser and split-screen text input. Nokia announced that updates to Symbian^3 interface will be delivered gradually, as they are available; Symbian^4, the previously planned major release, is now discontinued and some of its intended features will be incorporated into Symbian^3 in successive releases, starting with Symbian Anna.
Nokia Belle (Symbian OS 10.1)
In the summer of 2011 videos showing an early leaked version of Symbian Belle (original name of Nokia Belle) running on aNokia N8 were published on YouTube.[109]
Nokia officially renamed Symbian Belle to Nokia Belle in a company blog post.[111][112]
Nokia Belle adds to the Anna improvements with a pull-down status/notification bar, deepernear field communication integration, free-form re-sizable homescreen widgets, and six homescreens instead of the previous three. As of 7 February 2012, Nokia Belle update is available for most phone models through Nokia Suite, coming later to Australia. Users can check the availability at the Nokia homepage.[113]
On 1 March 2012, Nokia announced a Feature Pack 1 update for Nokia Belle which will be available as an update to Nokia 603, 700, 701 (excluding others), and forNokia 808 PureView natively.
Symbian Carla and Donna were the planned follow-up releases to Belle, to be released in late 2012 and late 2013 respectively. However it was acknowledged in May 2012 that these had been cancelled and that the upcoming Belle Feature Pack 2 would be the last version of the operating system.[114]
The latest software release for Nokia 1st generation Symbian Belle smartphones (Nokia N8,C7,C6-01, Oro,500,X7,E7,E6) is Nokia Belle Refresh (111.040.1511).[115]
In October 2012, the Nokia Belle Feature Pack 2, widely considered the last major update for Symbian, was released for Nokia 603, 700, 701, and 808 PureView.[116]
Nokia PC Suite, software package used to establish an interface between Nokia mobile devices and computers running Microsoft Windows operating system; not limited to Symbian
^Lee Williams"Symbian on Intel's Atom architecture". Archived from the original on 19 April 2009. Retrieved31 March 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). blog.symbian.org. 16 April 2009
^abMenezes, Gary (6 February 2010)."Symbian OS, Now Fully Open Source".Watblog.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved25 September 2011.
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