It seems like Apple started the run for app stores with the success of the iPhone apps, and after Google launching a store for the Wave, it is time for the Symbian Foundation to launch an application store named Symbian Horizon.

The plan for the store was announced on July 2009 and at this time Symbian has gathered over 50 applications, and they are helping developers by signing and submitting the software to target mobile application stores all around the world. At the moment there are 5 stores that support the Symbian Horizon: Ovi Store by Nokia, Samsung Applications Store, AT&T’s MEdia Mall, China Mobile’s Mobile Market, and Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow arena.

Lee Williams, Director of Symbian Foundation, comments:

We recognize that developers face many challenges in bringing their products to market on Symbian devices. In particular, the diversity of application stores in our ecosystem increases the burden on developers by requiring multiple submission and review processes. But this diversity can also offer an advantage over competitors’ closed systems, where applications sometimes receive arbitrary or commercially motivated rejections. Symbian Horizon retains this advantage while reducing the burden by becoming a conduit to multiple stores, helping developers reach the largest global mobile market in the world more efficiently.

Tags: App Store, mobile, Mobile Software, Symbian Foundation, symbian horizon

A weird rumor got out and spread around the web. According to it Nokia is going to dump Symbian OS and move forward with Maemo. It was said that Nokia will run Maemo on future tablets and smartphones which is very strange considering that Nokia has invested heavily in the purchase of Symbian and the Symbian Foundation is working on lots of Symbian OS versions, some definitely more interesting than others.

While Nokia hasn’t officially commented on the matter, Peter Schneider, the guy Nokia hired to do all that marketing for Maemo has send a clear Tweet: “No, Nokia is not replacing Symbian with Maemo. Symbian and Maemo will continue to coexist.”

So what’s the real deal? We’ll just have to wait and see what the near future brings us!

via TechCrunch

Tags: Maemo, Mobile News, Mobile Software, Nokia, Nokia, smartphone, symbian, Symbian Foundation, tablet

Frankly I am a little bit disappointed that Nokia hasn’t considered yet launching Android phones. Sure you’ll tell me that the Finnish company already has its very own OS. But is Symbian good enough at this point? While we’re waiting for the Symbian Foundation to create a totally new Symbian OS, other companies are getting an impressive Android market share. Android is getting hotter and hotter and we’re going to see lots of new gadgets powered by Google’s OS.

Nokia is finally seeing the big picture. It’s being rumored that a Nokia Android smartphone is in the works and it will be unveiled at the Nokia World conference in September. Nokia is looking to increase its market share in the smartphone business. Although it’s the number one cell phones manufacturer in the world Nokia is losing terrain in the smartphone sector. The company has lost 16% market share in 2 years. Compared to 2007 when it had 47% market share for smartphones at the end of 2008 that number dropped to 31%.

Is Nokia preparing a new flagship phone? Would you buy a N97 Android Nokia smartphone? We’ll have to wait a couple of months to find out if Nokia is indeed thinking Android thoughts.

via guardian

Tags: Android, Mobile News, Nokia, Nokia, Nokia World, Portable Devices, smartphones, symbian, Symbian Foundation

It looks like the Symbian Foundation has been doing its jobs lately. And in the process it hooked up with ST-Ericsson and ARM to make Symbian run on a SMP or Symmetric Multiprocessing configuration. That means Symbian can definitely work on dual-core CPUs which is great news:

The test environment consists of an ST-Ericsson U8500 smartphone platform embedding the first silicon implementation of ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore in the industry. A single instance of the Symbian operating system schedules multiple threads concurrently, distributing the CPU load on two cores. This guarantees the best combination of high performance and low power providing an unparalleled capability to build next generation mobile products for a variety of advanced consumer experiences.

So with that in mind, here’s what that whole platform can do:

• HD 1080p camcorder and video
• Up to 18 Million pixels camera
• ~100 hours audio playback time
• 10 hours HD video playback time
• Simultaneously TV out over HDMI
• Video and Imaging accelerator
• HW accelerated 3D Graphics supporting OpenGL ES2.0
• 2xWVGA (960×854) displays
• Touch UI on 2 displays

Impressed by any of that? You should very well be! And you should also be ready to wait for the first smartphone ready to offer all that as it’s going to take a while from concept to final product.

via intomobile

Tags: ARM, dual core, Mobile News, Portable Devices, ST-Ericsson, symbian, Symbian Foundation

The Symbian Foundation is ready to embrace the future. And it decided to share it with all of us. Over the following years we’re going to get a new platform every six months or so. Symbian^N platforms, where N stands for the version number, will be rolled out at a constant pace:

The simplest way to pronounce “Symbian^2″ is “Symbian 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.

Symbian^2 is the first one to come out. It’s based on Symbian S60 5th Edition and it will be feature-complete by the middle of 2009. Following its release we’re probably going to see Symbian^2 phones. Symbian^3 is coming by the middle of 2010 while Symbian^4 should be ready before the end of 2010.

Tags: Mobile News, Mobile Software, Samsung, symbian, Symbian Foundation