White Paper Nokia and Symbian OS White Paper Contents Nokia and Symbian – the history – extracts from Nokia announcements 3 What is Symbian 4 Symbian OS and Nokia products 5 Commercial benefi ts for both operators and developers 5 Symbian OS – fundamental customer requirements 6 Symbian OS – architecture 6 An open operating system 8 Symbian product releases – launching new technology 8 Writing applications for Symbian OS 8 2 White Paper Symbian is key to the future of the telecommunications industry. Nokia is basing its future smartphones on Symbian OS and it forms the basis of the recently launched Series 60 platform. Nokia is a founding member and shareholder of the Symbian alliance. This paper provides a basic understanding of why Nokia is strongly committed to Symbian – from both a commercial and a technical perspective. Additionally, some of the technical qualities of Symbian OS are examined in some detail – this section is aimed at the more technically minded reader. Nokia and Symbian – the history – extracts from Nokia announcements 24.6.1998 21.5.2001 13.11.2001 “It was announced today that Ericsson, “Nokia expects 50% of its 3G phones Open Mobile Architecture alliance Nokia and Psion have conditionally to use the Symbian Operating System launched – AT&T Wireless, Cingular agreed to form a new joint venture by 2004.” Jorma Ollila, CEO Nokia. Wireless, MM02, NTT DoCoMo, called Symbian. Nokia’s investment is Telefonica Moviles, Vodafone, Fujitsu, approx. USD 50 million. This agreement 5.6.2001 Matsushita, Mitsubishi Electric, is further strengthened by the support The Nokia 9290 Communicator (for US) Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, of Motorola who have signed a launched – “The 9290 Communicator Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Memorandum of Understanding to join demonstrates Nokia’s commitment to Symbian to commit to products Symbian.“ not only provide unique, innovative and services based on open mobile products for our customers, but to do architecture enablers. 21.11.2000 it using open standards, such as the The Nokia 9210 Communicator launched Symbian OS, Java and SyncML” 19.11.2001 – “Symbian’s EPOC operating system Paul Chellgren, Vice President of The Nokia 7650 launched – “The Nokia bring open development interfaces to Business Development for Nokia. 7650 delivers a full range of functions the Nokia 9210 Communicator for for professional needs in the numerous additional applications to be 12.11.2001 EGSM900/1800 environment. provided by any third party developers,” Nokia introduced the Series 60 Platform Symbian OS allows the phone to be Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, for application and feature driven mobile customized and upgraded by Nokia Mobile Phones. devices. The new platform is designed corporations and individual users, who for Symbian OS and will support mobile will be able to purchase numerous browsing, multimedia messaging and add-on software applications designed content downloading, as well as a host by independent software developers.“ of personal information management and telephony applications. 3 White Paper What is Symbian The Company Symbian history Epoc was renamed Symbian OS and Headquartered in London, Symbian Ltd Symbian OS started life as EPOC – has been progressively updated, is owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Panasonic, the operating system used for many incorporating both voice and data Psion, Siemens and Sony-Ericsson. years in Psion handheld devices. telephony technologies of ever When Symbian was formed in 1998, greater sophistication with every Customers Psion contributed Epoc into the group. product release. Symbian’s customers include all of its shareholders, but any company is free to license the product – Symbian OS is open to all on equal terms. So far, Symbian OS in addition to the shareholders, Sony, Sanyo, Kenwood and Fujitsu have all By setting the standard for wireless computing and telephony, Symbian taken licenses. brings together the wireless value chain. Symbian OS drives standards for the interoperation of data-enabled mobile phones with mobile networks, Business model content applications and services: The Symbian business model is simple – manufacturers pay a fee to Symbian A platform for wireless services for each device that they sell that uses Symbian delivers an advanced, open, standard operating system to its Symbian OS. Symbian also earns money licensees. Symbian OS is fl exible and scalable enough to be used in the working with licensees to develop their variety of mobile phones needed to meet a wide range of user requirements. products. Symbian OS supports complex requirements of network protocols worldwide and enables a broad, international developer community. Basic principles Nokia is committed to open platforms – Providing wireless services in the area of Operating Systems as in Open standards ensure global network interoperability, allowing mobile phone many other areas. The cornerstone of users to communicate with anyone, any way, at any time. The compelling Symbian’s modus operandi is to use advanced data services that operators can provide on Symbian OS phones will open – agreed – standards wherever help minimize churn and maximize revenue. possible. Symbian is focussed squarely on one part of the value chain – Developing wireless services providing the base operating system for Software developers are able, for the fi rst time, to build applications and mobile internet devices. This enables services for a global mass-market of advanced, open, programmable, mobile manufacturers, networks and application phones. A set of standard application programming interfaces (APIs) across developers to work together on a all Symbian OS phones and the advanced computing and communications common platform. capabilities of Symbian OS, enable development of advanced services. Symbian OS is a powerful aligning force for the wireless value chain. Mobile phone manufacturers, network operators and software developers are assured that they are working with an industry standard, open operating system that allows customization and is focused on the mass-market, driving the wireless community. 4 White Paper Symbian OS and Nokia products Nokia 9200 Communicator Series • Multimedia messaging Future Nokia products based on In June 2001, Nokia shipped the Nokia • Content Downloading Symbian OS 9210 Communicator. This was the • Mobile browsing Nokia will launch new – Symbian OS based third Nokia Communicator, but the fi rst • Native Symbian applications – products in the following categories: based on Symbian OS. The full 9200 • Communicator – building on the success Communicator range now includes: Symbian components include data of the Nokia 9000 Communicator, • Nokia 9210 Communicator management, communications, graphics, Nokia 9110 Communicator and Nokia • Nokia 9210c Communicator – multimedia, security, application 9200 Communicator series of phones a chinese language version engines, messaging engine, Bluetooth, • Imaging phones – the fi rst of which • Nokia 9290 Communicator – browser engines and support for data is the Nokia 7650 designed for the Americas synchronisation and internationalisation. • Media phones – designed for • Nokia 9210i Communicator – consuming media and browsing an upgraded version of the In May 2002, Nokia and Siemens • Entertainment focussed phones original 9210 announced an agreement – part of which included the licensing of Series 60 On 21.5.2001, Jorma Ollila, CEO Nokia Nokia 7650 Platform by Siemens. said “Nokia expects 50% of its 3G Nokia launched the Nokia 7650 in phones to use the Symbian Operating November 2001. This is the fi rst Symbian System by 2004.” – and these product OS phone to feature the “always on” plans are building towards this. capability of GPRS. With its built in camera, the Nokia 7650 is the fi rst Nokia phone to feature Multimedia Messaging (MMS). Commercial benefi ts for both Series 60 Platform operators and developers In November 2001, Nokia launched the Series 60 Platform – which provides The widespread establishment of Symbian Developers licensees with the ability to make OS will bring signifi cant commercial • Developers will benefi t from being advanced mobile phones. Licensees benefi ts, both direct and indirect. able to target a greater number of will be other phone manufacturers, consumers across one platform. who will be able to take advantage of Operators Their porting and development costs Nokia technology to short-cut the usual • Operators will benefi t from having a will dramatically decline as the development process. wide pool of interoperable devices, common OS means that applications built on open standards. They will be will need to be developed only once. Series 60 Platform builds on Symbian OS, able to select from a wide range of • Applications can be written by complementing it with a graphical terminal and infrastructure virtually anybody. This software could user interface library and reference manufacturers with a rich set of be stand-alone, used only by the user applications. interoperable solutions. of the device. However, just as easily, • In terms of value that operators can the software could be a networking For licensees, Series 60 is a platform add, applications and content can all application, enabling users to on which they can build their own be more cost effectively supplied – communicate with other users, or to feature-rich terminals. It takes as a base given the common OS shared across access a resource somewhere in the a large colour screen and an easy to use phones. internet.