All About Symbian Phones

Symbian is an Operating System designed for mobile device and smartphones, with associated libraries, user interface, frameworks and reference implementations of common tools, developed by: symbian Ltd. It runs on ARM processors although an unreleased x86 port existed. Symbian OS was created with 3 system design principle in mind:

Psion: In 1980, Psion was founded by David Potter. EPOC: EPOC is family of graphical OS developed by Psion for portable device EPOC 16: EPOC 16 was the OS developed by Psion in 1980 and early 1990s for Psion's SIBO devices like MC200, MC400,Series3 etc. EPOC-32: The first version of EPOC 32,Release1 appeared on Psion series 5 in 1997. EPOC 32 OS, at that time simply referred to EPOC was later renames to Symbian OS.In 1998, Psion software became Symbian, a major joint venture between Psion and Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola. EPOC simply become Symbian OS. EPOC-32: The first version of EPOC 32,Release1 appeared on Psion series 5 in 1997. EPOC 32 OS, at that time simply referred to EPOC was later renames to Symbian OS.In 1998, Psion software became Symbian, a major joint venture between Psion and Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola. EPOC simply become Symbian OS. EPOC OS Release 1-3 (ER1, ER3): The Series 5 device released in june 1997, used it. EPOC Release 4: The device Osaris used it. EPOC Release 5: The device like Psion series 5mx, series7 were released using ER5. ER5u: Ericsson R380 was released using ER5u in november 2000. Symbian os v6.0 and 6.1: This release sometime is called ER6. The first Symbian OS phone 9210 was released in june 2001. Symbian OS 7.0 and 7.0s: First released in 2003 which was important release. It also added EDGE. Symbian OS 8.0: First shipped in 2004. It included new APIs to suppor CDMA,3G, DVB-H. Symbian OS 8.1: Basically a clean up version of 8.0. Most famous smartphone featuring 8.1a was N90 in 2005. Symbian OS 9.0: This version was used for internel purpose only.This version has no binary code compatibility with previous version. Symbian OS 9.1: Relesed early 2005. It includes a controversial mandatory code signing. Developers need to retool and recode. Support for bluetooth 2. 0(was 1.2) Symbian OS 9.2: Relesed Q1 2006. S60 3rd editions, Feature Pack 1 have os 9.2. Symbian OS 9.3: Relesed on 12 july 2006. Native support for WiFi 802.11,HSDPA. Symbian OS 9.4: Announced on March 2007. SQL support. Used as the basis for Symbian^1, the first symbian platform released also know as S60 5th edition. Symbian OS 9.5: native support for mobile TV broadcast in DVB-H and ISDB- T format.

In 2006 Nokia released Music Edition series for N70, N73 and N91. all had black housing and new sales box and packages, and were special for their extra storage capacity. » Two months after N70 became available Nokia also realsed N70 model without 3G support. N70-5 doesn't have a front camera otherwise all functions were the same as N70-1. It was shipped to China, Mexico and East Europe. » Did you know that 6600 and other symbian os7 phones can not install 3D Java Games. » Symbian is the most popular smartpone OS on market by 47% of the sector's total sales, with 17.9 millions handset sold in Q4 of 2008. » In October 2008, S60 5th edition was launced.(Nokia decided to move directly from 3rd to 5th edition) as a polite gesture to Asian customers. Because the number 4 means bad luck in some Asian cultures. » Note that software written for s60v1 or s60v2 isnt binary- compatible with s60v3 because the later version uses a new, hardened version of Symbian OS v9.1 which has mandatory code signing.