Symbian OS

Abstract

Symbian OS is designed for the mobile phone environment. It addresses constraints of mobile phones by providing a framework to handle low memory situations, a power management model, and a rich software layer implementing industry standards for communications, telephony and data rendering. Even with these abundant features, Symbian OS puts no constraints on the integration of other peripheral hardware. This flexibility allows handset manufacturers to pursue innovative and original designs. Symbian OS is proven on several platforms. It started life as the operating system for the Psion series of consumer PDA products (including Series 5mx, Revo and netbook), and various adaptations by Diamond, Oregon Scientific and Ericsson. The first dedicated mobile phone incorporating Symbian OS was the Ericsson R380 Smartphone, which incorporated a flip-open keypad to reveal a touch screen display and several connected applications. Most recently available is the Nokia 9210 Communicator, a mobile phone that has a QWERTY keyboard and color display, and is fully open to third-party applications written in Java or C++. The five key points - small mobile devices, mass-market, intermittent wireless connectivity, diversity of products and an open platform for independent software developers are the premises on which Symbian OS was designed and developed. This makes it distinct from any desktop, workstation or server operating system. This also makes Symbian OS different from embedded operating systems, or any of its competitors, which werent designed with all these key points in mind.

CONTENTS OF INDEX

Sl. No.

Details

Page No.

1. 1.1 1.2

INTRODUCTION Objective How it Works?

1 1 2

2. 2.2

SYSTEM OVERVIEW Architecture

3 3

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

FEATURES WORKING PROCEDURE PROTOTYPING DEVICS APPENDIX CONCLUSION FUTURE SCOPE BIBLIOGRAPHY

13 15 23 25 30 31 33

1. INTRODUCTION Small devices come in many shapes and sizes, each addressing distinct target markets that have different requirements. The market segment we are interested in is that of the mobile phone. The primary requirement of this market segment is that all products are great phones. This segment spans voice-centric phones with information capability to information-centric devices with voice capability. These advanced mobile phones integrate fully-featured personal digital assistant (PDA) capabilities with those of a traditional mobile phone in a single unit. There are several critical factors for the need of operating systems in this market. It is important to look at the mobile phone market in isolation. It has specific needs that make it unlike markets for PCs or fixed domestic appliances. Scaling down a PC operating system, or bolting communication capabilities onto a small and basic operating system, results in too many fundamental compromises. Symbian believes that the mobile phone market has five key characteristics that make it unique, and result in the need for a specifically designed operating system: mobile phones are both small and mobile. mobile phones are ubiquitous - they target a mass-market of consumer, enterprise and professional users. mobile phones are occasionally connected - they can be used when connected to the wireless phone network, locally to other devices, or on their own. manufacturers need to differentiate their products in order to innovate and compete in a fast-evolving market. the platform has to be open to enable independent technology and software vendors to develop third-party applications, technologies and services.

The way to grow the mobile phone market is to create good products - and the only way to create good products is to address each of these characteristics and ensure that technology doesnt limit functionality. Meeting the impressive growth forecast by analysts in a reasonable time frame is only possible with the right operating system.

Symbian and its licensees aim to create a mass market for advanced open mobile phones. To deliver products that satisfy mobile phone users, an operating system must be engineered to take into account key functional demands of advanced communications on 2.5G and 3G networks.

To fit into the limited amount of memory a mobile phone may have, the operating system must be compact. However, it must still provide a rich set of functionality. What is needed to power a mobile phone is not a mini-operating system but a different operating system - one that is tailored. Symbian is dedicated to mobile phones and Symbian OS has been designed to meet the sophisticated requirements of the mobile phone market that mini-operating systems cant. They simply run out of steam

WHAT IS SYMBIAN OS? Symbian OS (operating system) is an operating system designed specifically for mobile devices. It is being developed by Symbian Ltd, a software licensing company that supplies the operating system for many data-enabled mobile phones. 1.1 OBJECTIVE: Symbian OS is designed so that it can be the basis of a wide variety of smartphones from several different manufacturers. It was carefully designed specifically to run on smartphone platforms: general-purpose computers with limited CPU, memory and storage capacity, focused on communication. Our discussion of Symbian OS will start with its history. We will then provide an overview of the system to give an idea of how it is designed and what uses the designers intended for it. Next we will examine the various aspects of Symbian OS design as we have for Linux and for Windows: we will look at processes, memory management, I/O, the file

system, and security; concluding with a look at how Symbian OS addresses communication in smartphones. Small and mobile, but always available Mobile phones are both small and, by definition, mobile. This creates high user expectations. For instance, if you have your agenda on a phone that you also use to make calls and exchange data, you expect to be able to carry it with you at all times and to be instantly available whenever you want to use it. Fulfilling these expectations makes considerable demands on power management. The device needs to be responsive in all situations and cannot afford to go through a long boot sequence when it is turned on. In fact, the device should never be powered down completely since it needs to activate timed alarms or handle incoming calls. At the same time, a mobile phone must provide many hours of operation on a single charge or set of batteries. Meeting these contradictory requirements can only be done if the whole operating system is designed for efficiency. Handling occasional connectivity Accessing remote data, sending email or synchronizing calendars requires some type of connection. Mobility constraints generally make a wireless connection preferable - whether wide area (using wireless telephony) or personal area such as infrared or Bluetooth. Wireless connectivity is patchy, caused by different protocols around the world, fade-outs while moving and incomplete coverage, especially in remote areas, in some buildings or while airborne. It is unwise to rely on a permanent mobile connection - it is very frustrating for the user if such a connection is assumed. Wide area wireless networks are - and always will be - much slower than wired networks. An operating system must take this into account by delivering rich applications that are designed to manipulate the users data while it is on the phone Product diversity There is an apparent contradiction between software developers who want to develop for just one popular platform and manufacturers who each want to have a range of distinctive and innovative products. The circle can be squared by separating the user interface from the core operating system. Advanced mobile phones or Smart phones will come in all sorts of shapes -

from traditional designs resembling todays mobile phones with main input via the phone keypad, to a tablet form factor operated with a stylus, to phones with larger screens and small keyboards. Open platform An operating system for the mass-market must be open for third-party development - by independent software vendors, enterprise IT departments, network operators and Symbian OS licensees. In turn, this implies a manageable learning curve, standard languages such as C++ and Java, along with SDKs, tools, documentation, books, technical support and training. Symbian OS has a rich set of APIs for independent software developers, partners and licensees to write their applications.

1.2 HOW IT WORKS? As an operating system software, Symbian OS provides the underlying routines and services for application software. For example, email software that interacts with a user through a mobile phone screen and downloads email messages to the phones inbox over a mobile network or

WiFi access, is using the communication protocols and file management routines provided by the Symbian OS.

Symbian OS technology has been designed with these key points in mind: to provide power, memory and input & output resource management specifically required in mobile devices to deliver an open platform that complies with global telecommunications and Internet standards to provide tools for developing mobile software for business, media and other applications to ensure the wide availability of applications and accessories for different user requirements to facilitate wireless connectivity for a variety of networks Along with processors, smartphones also have computer chips that provide functionality. Phones withcameras have high-resolution image sensors, just like digital cameras. Other chips support complex functions such as real-time web browsing, sharing multimedia files or playing music without placing too great a demand on the phones battery. Some manufacturers develop chips that integrate multiple functions to help reduce the overall cost (fewer chips produced per phone help offset production costs).

The Software Symbian Os working for smartphones can be visualized as a software stack. The stack consists of the following layers:
1.

Kernel - management systems for processes and drivers for hardware

2.

Middleware - software libraries that enable smartphone applications (such as security, web browsing, messaging, etc.)

3.

Application execution environment (AEE) - application programming interfaces, which allow developers to create their own programs

4.

User interface framework - the graphics and layouts seen on the screen

2. SYSTEM OVERVIEW Symbian OS is the advanced, open operating system licensed by the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers. It is designed for the specific requirements of advanced 2G, 2.5G and 3G mobile phones. Symbian OS combines the power of an integrated applications environment with mobile telephony, bringing advanced data services to the mass market. Symbian OS is a powerful aligning force for the wireless value chain, driving the wireless industry. 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. The Symbian OS was designed specifically for mobile devices. It has a very small memory footprint and low power consumption. This is very important, as users do not want to recharge their phone daily and to allow to run on small devices with limited memory. Unlike other proprietary operating systems, it is an open OS, enabling third party developers to write and install applications independently from the device manufacturers. An extensive C++ API is provided which allows access to services such as telephony and messaging, in addition to basic OS functionality. Some devices that run Symbian may not be switched off for years; therefore the OS was designed so applications could run for years without losing the user data. Also the OS can run on more than one hardware platform, so it can be used on a variety of device types including those touch screens and those with pens or keyboards. Symbian OS is the current name of the operating system, but when it was initially released it was known as EPOC. The name EPOC was used for some time and will still be

found in class/file names and in older documentation. The name EPOC is still used to refer to the kernel. Symbian OS is highly optimized, heavily asynchronous, pre-emptive, multitasking operating system. It was redesigned from scratch in 1994 as a 32bit OS. Most of the code is in C++. Very little code exists in C or assembly. The OS supports the client-server architecture. Symbian OS provides a class framework and a suite of organizing and communicating applications. All the system services are run from ROM directly. The user applications reside in RAM. Multithreading and context switch are not encouraged at the user application level.

3. FEATURES: There are many features that makes Symbian OS ideal for mobile devices. Some of these are briefly explained below. Client-Server Architecture: The power of the client-server framework is widely acknowledged in the software community. In Symbian OS, clients are programs that have user interfaces, and servers are programs that can only be accessed via a well defined interface from other programs. The role of a client is to serve the user, while servers ensure timely response to all the clients while controlling the access to the resources of the actual system. Additionally, in practice, one server will often have many extra servers relying on the original server. Event Management: Event management has long been considered a core strength of Symbian OS - reflecting the fact that Symbian OS was designed from the start to have event based time sharing in a single thread. Rather than more conventional methods of having multi threaded applications, Symbian OS enables the developer to think in terms of interactions and behaviors as the main artifacts. Enabling this shift from procedural to interactive designs have been one of the main challenges of modern software engineering, and this is one reason why Symbian OS has earned its reputation for advanced design. Object Oriented Design: Because Symbian OS has an object oriented design, it is easy to configure for different sorts of hardware, and being component based, it allows manufacturers to add or remove components. This is crucial in enabling manufacturers to make devices that best suit their customers needs. This flexibility extends even to the user interface - again allowing a variety of different device designs to work from the same operating system. For Symbian itself, the design allows new technology to be slotted into an already stable platform. This will provide a stable base as the telecommunications industry moves from 2G to 2.5G to 3G to 4G, with the further introduction of new technologies such as SyncML, Bluetooth, and Multimedia Messaging

amongst many. The picture will grow ever more complicated, especially when technologies are used in combination, but Symbian OS is ready! For application developers, this separation of components allows them to program far richer applications - getting into the middle of the operating system. Power Management: Symbian OS users are used to the performance of mobile phones - and so demand similar performance in terms of weight and operating times when they adopt new devices. Power management is built into the kernel of Symbian OS and is designed to make efficient use of the processors and peripherals and so minimize power usage. When peripherals are not being used they are switched off by the system. This lowers battery consumption, prolonging usage and allows for smaller batteries. This meets the requirement to work on standalone portable devices, enabling manufacturers to make phones that capture the optimum combination of size and weight for their target market. Robust and Dependable: Symbian OS users will have experienced the performance levels achieved in this area by mobile phones. Devices should not lose user data, crash or require rebooting. Symbian achieves this in two ways: Each process runs in a protected address space, thus it is not possible for one application to overwrite anothers address space. The kernel also runs in a protected address space, so that a bug in one application cannot overwrite the kernels stack or heap. The client-server architecture of Symbian OS allows applications to exchange data without compromising overall system integrity. This meets the requirement to work on standalone portable devices, even though Symbian devices offer greatly enhanced functionality over standard mobile phones. Memory Management:

For standalone portable devices, memory management is important. The need to minimize weight, device size and cost means the amount of memory available on a Symbian OS device is often quite limited. Symbian OS always assumes that the memory available is limited, and minimizes consumption at every turn. Consequently, less memory is actually required by the system. Also having less memory helps to keep down power consumption. Full Multitasking: Symbian OS runs each application as a separate process, allowing multiple applications to run concurrently. For instance, if a user is checking the calendar, and receives a call, the system must allow the user to switch between applications instantaneously. Equally, should the phone call result in an appointment, the user must be able to check the calendar - and still maintain the phone call. As phones become more data enabled, this ability will become ever more important.

4. WORKING PROCEDURE Symbian OS architecture is designed to meet a number of requirements. It must be hardware independent so it can be used on a variety of phone types, it must be extendable so it can cope with future developments, and it must be open to all to develop for.

The simplest architectural view of Symbian OS is the layered view given by the Symbian OS System Model.

UI Framework Layer: The topmost layer of Symbian OS, the UI Framework layer provides the frameworks and libraries for constructing a user interface, including the basic class hierarchies for user interface controls and other frameworks and utilities used by user interface components. The UI Framework layer also includes a number of specialized, graphics- based frameworks which are used by the user interface but which are also available to applications, including the Animation framework, the Front End Processor (FEP) base framework and Grid. The user interface architecture in Symbian OS is based on a core framework called Uikon and a class hierarchy for

user interface control called the control environment. Together, they provide the framework which denes basic GUI behavior. Uikon was originally created as a refactoring of the Eikon user interface library, which was part of the earliest versions of the operating system. Uikon was created to support easier user interface customization, including a pluggable look-and-feel module. The Application Service Layer: The Application Services layer provides support independent of the user interface for applications on the Symbian OS. These services divide into three broad groupings: System-level services used by all applications, for example Text Handling Services that support generic types of application and application-like services, for example personal productivity applications (example Quick Office) and data synchronization services (OVI Sync, for example); also included are a number of key application engines which are used and extended by licensees (Calendar and Agenda Model), as well as legacy engines (Data Engine) Services based on more generic but application-centric technologies, for example mail, messaging and browsing (Messaging Store, MIME Recognition Framework, HTTP Transport Framework). Applications in Symbian OS broadly follow the classic object-oriented Model View Controller (MVC) pattern. The framework level support encapsulates the essential relationships between the main application classes and abstracts all of the necessary underlying system-level behavior. In principle, a complete application can be written without any further direct dependencies (with the exception of the User Library).

Java ME: In some senses, Java does not t neatly into the layered operating system model. Symbian Java implementation is based around: A virtual machine (VM) and layered support for the Java system which complements it, based on the MIDP 2.0 Prole A set of standard MIDP 2.0 Packages An implementation of the CLDC 1.1 language, I/O, and utilities services A number of low-level plug-ins which implement the interface between CLDC, the supported packages, and the native system Java support has been included in Symbian OS from the beginning, but the early Java system was based on pJava and JavaPhone. A standard system based on Java ME rst appeared in Symbian OS v7.0s. Since Symbian OS v8, the Java VM has been a port of Suna CLDC HI. The Base Services Layer: The foundational layer of the Symbian OS, the Base Services layer provides the lowest level of user-side services. In particular, the Base Services layer includes the File Server and the User Library. The microkernel architecture of Symbian OS places them outside the kernel in user space. (This is in contrast to monolithic system architectures, such as both Linux and Microsoft Windows, in which le system services and User Library equivalents are provided as kernel services.) Other important system frameworks provided by this layer include the ECom Plug-in Framework, which implements the standard management interface used by all Symbian OS framework plug-ins; Store, which provides the persistence model; the Central Repository, the DBMS framework; and the Cryptography Library. The Base Services layer also includes the additional components which are needed to create a fully functioning base port without requiring any further high-level services: the Text Window Server and the Text Shell.

The Kernel Services and Hardware Interface Layer:

The lowest layer of the Symbian OS, the Kernel Services and Hardware Interface layer contains the operating system kernel itself, and the supporting components which abstract the interfaces to the underlying hardware, including logical and physical device drivers and a variant support, which implements pre-packaged support for the standard, supported platforms (including the Emulator and reference hardware boards). In releases up to Symbian OS v8, the kernel was the EKA1 (Kernel Architecture 1) kernel, the original Symbian OS kernel. In Symbian OS v8, the EKA2 (Kernel Architecture 2) real-time kernel shipped for the rst time as an option. From Symbian OS v9, EKA1 no longer ships and all systems are based on the realtime EKA2 kernel.

5. PROTOTYPING DEVICS: Symbian OS has a fairly short history. It has roots in systems that were developed in the 1990s and its debut was in 2001. This should not be surprising, since the Smartphone platform upon which Symbian OS runs has evolved only recently as well. Symbian OS has its roots in handheld devices and has seen rapid development through several versions. The roots of Symbian and the Symbian Foundation stretch back to the very start of mobile computing, when smart minds coalesced around the idea of finding the best ways to mobilize computingto help people do things better, faster, now. From its earliest days, the idea that became Symbian was all about collaboration starting with David Potter's early 1980s designs of games and office productivity software for Sinclair's personal computers, a partnership that launched the "Psion" name. Those programs helped give birth in 1984 to the Psion Organizer, the world's first handheld computerand one that would quickly support a simple-to-use database programming language, OPL. The collaborative support from the industry for the growing power of the Psion software base led to the historic formation in 1998 of Symbian, a joint venture between Psion and phone manufacturers Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia. Over the next few years Symbian helped bring forth the explosion of mobile device innovationwith Symbian software at the base of more than 100 million phones by 2006. In 2008, the next step of Symbian evolution took place, with Nokia purchasing all Symbian assets and starting the software down the path to open source. As the Symbian Foundation and all its members look to the future and the billions of forthcoming interconnected mobile devices, it will be innovative collaborationworking together that will help make people more productive, more creative and more entertained than ever before. Symbian OS Roots: Psion and EPOC The heritage of Symbian OS begins with some of the first handheld devices. Handheld devices evolved in the late 1980s as a means to capture the usefulness of a desktop device in a small, mobile package. The first attempts at a handheld computer did not meet with much excitement; the Apple Newton was a well designed device that was popular with only a few

users. Despite this slow start, the handheld computers developed by the mid-1990s were better tailored to the user and the way that people used mobile devices. Handheld computers were originally designed as PDAspersonal digital assistants that were essentially electronic plannersbut evolved to embrace many types of functionality. As they developed, they began to function like desktop computers and they started to have the same needs as desktop computers. They needed to multitask; they added storage capabilities in multiple forms; they needed to be flexible in areas of input and output. Handheld devices also grew to embrace communication. As these personal devices grew, personal communication was also developing. Mobile phones saw a dramatic increase in use in the late 1990s. Thus, it was natural to merge handheld devices with mobile phones to form smartphones. The operating systems that ran handheld devices had to develop as this merger took place. In the 1990s, Psion Computers manufactured devices that were PDAs. In 1991, Psion produced the Series 3: a small computer with a half-VGA, monochrome screen that could fit into a pocket. The Series 3 was followed by the Series 3c in 1996, with additional infrared capability, and the Series 3mx in 1998, with a faster processor and more memory. Each of these devices was a great success, primarily because of good power management and interoperability with other computers, including PCs and other handheld devices. Programming was based in the language C, had an object-oriented design, and employed application engines, a signature part of Symbian OS development. This engine approach was a powerful feature. It borrowed from microkernel design to focus functionality in engineswhich functioned like serversthat managed functions in response to requests from applications. This approach made it possible to standardize an API and to use object abstraction to remove the application programmer from worrying about tedious details like data formats. In 1996, Psion started to design a new 32-bit operating system that supported pointing devices on a touch screen, used multimedia and was more communication rich. The new system was also more object-oriented, and was to be portable to different architectures and device designs. The result of Psions effort was the introduction of the system as EPOC Release 1.

EPOC was programmed in C++ and was designed to be object-oriented from the ground up. It again used the engine approach and expanded this design idea into a series of servers that coordinated access to system services and peripheral devices. EPOC expanded the communication possibilities, opened up the operating system to multimedia, introduced new platforms for interface items like touch screens, and generalized the hardware interface. EPOC was further developed into two more releases: EPOC Release 3 (ER3) and EPOC Release 5 (ER5). These ran on new platforms like the Psion Series 5 and Series 7 computers. Psion also looked to emphasize the ways that its operating system could be adapted to other hardware platforms. Around the year 2000, the most opportunities for new handheld development were in the mobile phone business, where manufacturers were already searching for a new, advanced operating system for its next generation of devices. To take advantage of these opportunities, Psion and the leaders in the mobile phone industry, including Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Matsushita (Panasonic), formed a joint venture, called Symbian, which was to take ownership of and further develop the EPOC operating system core. This new core design was now called Symbian OS.

Symbian OS Version 6 Since EPOCs last version was ER5, Symbian OS debuted at version 6 in 2001. It took advantage of the flexible properties of EPOC and was targeted at several different generalized platforms. It was designed to be flexible enough to meet the requirements for developing a variety of advanced mobile devices and phones, while allowing manufacturers the opportunity to differentiate their products. It was also decided that Symbian OS would actively adopt current, state-of-the-art key technologies as they became available. This decision reinforced the design choices of object orientation and client-server architecture. Symbian OS version 6 was called "open" by its designers. This was different than the "open source" properties often attributed to UNIX and Linux. By open, Symbian OS designers meant that the structure of the operating system was published and available to all. In addition, all system interfaces were published to foster third-party software design. Symbian OS Version 7 Symbian OS version 6 looked very much like its EPOC and version 6 predecessors in design and function. The design focus had been to embrace mobile telephony. However, as more and more manufacturers designed mobile phones, it became obvious that even the flexibility of EPOC, a handheld operating system, would not be able to address the plethora of new phones that needed to use Symbian OS. Symbian OS version 7 kept the desktop functionality of EPOC but most system internals were rewritten to embrace many kinds of smart phone functionality. The operating system kernel and operating system services were separated from the user interface. The same operating system could now be run on many different smart phone platforms, each of which using a different user interface system. Symbian OS could now be extended to address new and unpredicted messaging formats, for example, or could be used on different smart phones that used different phone technologies. Symbian OS version 7 was released in 2003.

Symbian OS Today Symbian OS version 7 was a very important release because it built abstraction and flexibility into the operating system. However, this abstraction came at a price. The performance of the operating system soon became an issue that needed to be addressed. A project was undertaken to completely rewrite the operating system again, this time focusing on performance. The new operating system design was to retain the flexibility of Symbian OS version 7 while enhancing performance and making the system more secure. Symbian OS version 8, released in 2004, enhanced the performance of Symbian OS, particularly for its real-time functions. Symbian OS version 9, released in 2005, added concepts of capability-based security and gate keeping installation; Symbian OS version 9 also added the flexibility for hardware that Symbian OS version 7 added for software. A new binary model was developed that allowed hardware developers to use Symbian OS without redesigned the hardware to fit a specific architectural model.

1980 : 1984 : 1986 :

Psion founded by David Potter Psion Organizer launched the "vastly improved" Psion Organizer II launches, with a simple-to-use Database programming language, OPL.

1987 :

Psion begins development of its "SIBO" ("Sixteen Bit Organizer") family of devices and its own new multitasking operating system called EPOC to run its PDA products.

1989 :

First EPOC16 devices, the MC400 and MC200, ship with a primarily 1-bit, keyboard-operated graphical interface.

1997 :

The first version of EPOC32 Release 1 appeared on the Psion Series 5 ROM v1.0. The EPOC32 operating system, at the time simply referred to as EPOC, was later renamed Symbian OS. EPOC32 was a pre-emptive multitasking, single user operating system with memory protection, which encourages the application developer to separate their program into an engine and an interface.

1998 :

In June Psion Software became Symbian, a major joint venture between Psion and phone manufacturers Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia. As of Release 6, EPOC became known simply as Symbian OS.

1999 :

The Psion Series 5mx, Psion Series 7, Psion Revo, Diamond Mako, Psion netBook, netPad, GeoFox One, and Ericsson MC218 were released using ER5. A phone project was announced at CeBIT, the Phillips Illium/Accent, but did not achieve a commercial release.

2000 :

The first phone, the Ericsson R380 was released using ER5u in November.

2001 :

The first 'open' Symbian OS phone, the Nokia 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.

2003 :

First shipment of Symbian OS 7.0 and 7.0s, an important Symbian release which appeared with all contemporary user interfaces including UIQ (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 several FOMA phones in Japan. It also added EDGE support and IPv6. One million Symbian phones were shipped in Q1 2003, with the rate increasing to one million a month by the end of 2003.

2004 : 2006 : 2008 :

Psion sells its stake in Symbian. 100 millionth phone with Symbian OS is shipped. Symbian acquired by Nokia; Symbian Foundation formed.

6. APPENDIX PDAs The main purpose of a personal digital assistant (PDA) is to act as an electronic organizer or day planner that is portable, easy to use and capable of sharing information with your PC. It's supposed to be an extension of the PC, not a replacement. PDAs, also called handhelds or palmtops, have definitely evolved over the years. Not only can they manage your personal information, such as contacts, appointments, and to-do lists, today's devices can also connect to the Internet, act as global positioning system (GPS) devices, and run multimedia software. What's more, manufacturers have combined PDAs with cell phones, multimedia players and other electronic gadgetry. Smart Phone A smart phone is a full-featured mobile phone with PC-like functionality. It is any highend phone with multiple features and sophisticated functionalities. The smart functionality of a smart phone includes any additional interface, such as a QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen or even a secure access to company e-mail. Smart phones are basically voice-centric devices that offer PDA-like capabilities. A voice-centric device is one in which voice is the primary function and data is the secondary function. Stylus A stylus is a writing utensil, or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision when using touch screens. It usually refers to a narrow elongated staff, similar to a modern ballpoint pen. API An application programming interface (API) is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other. An API may include specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables.

An API specification can take many forms, including an International Standard such as POSIX or vendor documentation such as the Microsoft Windows API, or the libraries of a programming language, e.g. Standard Template Library in C++ or Java API. An API differs from an ABI (Application Binary Interface) in that the former is source code based while the latter is a binary interface. For instance POSIX is an API, while the Linux Standard Base is an ABI. MVC Model view controller (MVC) is a software architecture, currently considered an architectural pattern used in software engineering. The pattern isolates "domain logic" (the application logic for the user) from the user interface (input and presentation), permitting independent development, testing and maintenance of each (separation of concerns). Use of the MVC pattern results in applications that separate the different aspects of the application (input logic, business logic, and UI logic), while providing a loose coupling between these elements. OPL The Open Programming Language (OPL) is an embedded programming language for portable devices that run the Symbian Operating System. On classic Psion PDAs such as the Series 3, 5/5mx, Series 7, and netBook/ netPad, as well as the MC218, OPL is part of the standard application suite. OPL is also included in Psion Teklogix industrial handhelds such as the Workabout mx. OPL is an interpreted language similar to BASIC. A fully Visual Basiccompatible language OVAL has been also developed. The language was originally called Organiser Programming Language developed by Psion Ltd for the Psion Organiser. The first implementation (without graphics) was for the original Psion Organiser (now referred to as the Psion Organiser I, 1984) and came bundled with the Science, Finance and Math datapaks. It became truly accessible as built in software in the Psion Organiser II (1986) and the language went on to be used in the Psion Series 3 and later. After Psion retired from the PDA market, the project was changed to open source and the acronym was re-interpreted. The language is now developed on Source Forge in the opldev project.

Market Share and competition: 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, with Android having 22.7%, RIM having 16%, and Apple having 15.7% (via iOS). 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, with RIM having 20.8%, Apple having 15.1% (via iOS), Microsoft having 8.8% (via Windows CE and Windows Mobile) and Android having 4.7%. Other competitors include webOS, Qualcomm's BREW, SavaJe, Linux and MontaVista Software. Symbian has lost market share over the years as the market has dramatically grown, with new competing platforms entering the market, though it's 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. 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. In 2006, Symbian had 73% of the smartphone market, compared with 22.1% of the market in the second of 2011.

Criticisms: 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. For example, if a user wants to type a Latin letter, he must call the menu, click the languages item, choose the English language between many other languages by arrow keys and then press the 'OK' button. After typing the Latin letter, the user must repeat that procedure to return to his native keyboard. This method slows down the 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 by one gesture. Early versions of the firmware for the original Nokia N97, running on Symbian^1/Series 60 5th Edition have been heavily criticized. In November 2010, Smartphone blog All About Symbian criticized the performance of Symbian's default web browser and recommended the alternative browser Opera Mobile. Nokia's Senior Vice President Jo Harlow promised an updated browser in the first quarter of 2011. Malware: Symbian OS was subject to a variety of viruses, the best known of which is Cabir. Usually these send themselves from phone to phone by Bluetooth. So far, none have taken advantage of any flaws in Symbian OS instead, they have all asked the user whether they would like to install the software, with somewhat prominent warnings that it can't be trusted. However, with a view that the average mobile phone user shouldn't have to worry about security, Symbian OS 9.x adopted a UNIX-style capability 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 have 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 file trojan 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 a binary that will crash a critical system service component. This will prevent any application from being launched in the phone. Mabir.A is basically Cabir with added MMS functionality. The two are written by the same author, and the code shares many similarities. It spreads using Bluetooth 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 stick on the reboot, 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, Frontal 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 form of 'cooked firmware' was recently demonstrated at the International Malware Conference, MalCon, December 2010, by Indian hacker Atul Alex.

7. CONCLUSION Symbian OS is a robust multi-tasking operating system, designed specifically for realworld wireless environments and the constraints of mobile phones (including limited amount of memory). Symbian OS is natively IP-based, with fully integrated communications and messaging. It supports all the leading industry standards that will be essential for this generation of data-enabled mobile phones. Symbian OS enables a large community of developers. The open platform allows the installation of third party software to further enhance the platform. If you are still unable to make up your mind as to purchase a smartphone with Windows Mobile or Symbian, you should ask yourself how you want to use the device. WiFi and Bluetooth will slurp up a lot of the battery's capacity. So if you want to go for days without recharging the battery, either because you can't or you won't, you'd better go for a Symbian. Windows users, on the other hand, are very familiar with the applications Windows Mobile offers. And Apple-fans should go for the Apple iPhone! The possibilities of both operating systems are quite similar and the one is not specifically better than the other as far as possibilities are concerned.

8. FUTURE SCOPE: You may not know it by name, but the Symbian operating system has graced our phones for several years, and was popular software for the first generation of smartphones. Perhaps the most challenging consideration for the future is security. Smartphones and PDAs are already popular among many corporate executives, who often use their phones to transmit confidential information. Smartphones may be vulnerable to security breaches such as an Evil Twin attack. Its colorful graphics, simple-to-use interface and the ease of which you could multi task made it a firm favorite with consumers and developers alike, but unfortunately, 2012 looks bleak for this ageing operating system. Jobs for IT developers are now mainly centred on Android, Windows Phone and Apples iOS systems, so just what does the future hold for Symbian? April 2011 saw the biggest indication of Symbians future when Nokia (which created the operating system) announced it was going to outsource any activity involving Symbian to Accenture. This included 3,000 staff and has created a number of IT jobs, but it also rid the company of any uncertainty over what lies ahead for Symbian. When Nokia decided to use the Windows Phone operating system for its latest handsets, preferring a working relationship with the software giants to Symbian, it was likely such an announcement would follow. It seemed that Symbians future now lies somewhere other than Nokia, and this move confirmed so. Accenture is no stranger to Symbian, with the US-based company starting its working relationship with Nokia as far back as 1994. In fact, Accenture has played an important role in the Symbian software business and will now take over the development and support of the operating system. It is not, though, the end of Nokia and Symbians working relationship, with Accenture confirming that Nokia will be one of its customers during this new arrangement. Accenture is a giant in the mobile software business and counts Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry and iPhone as some of its most illustrious clients. It would appear that

Symbian is in good hands but unfortunately, the future still looks uncertain for an operating system that has been left behind by its rivals. There are numerous operating system options for mobile companies launching a new phone nowadays, with many of them producing their own exclusive software. Apples iOS is the standout system but Android is also popular among consumers. These two giants are making it hard even for the likes of Windows to muscle in on the mobile operating system market, so realistically, what chance does Symbian have? For those who do not own an iPhone, the majority are using handsets with Android, meaning Sony Ericsson and Nokia customers are no longer exposed to Symbian software. With Nokia using the Windows operating system for its latest assault on the smartphone market (the Nokia Lumia 800), it seems there may be no way back for Symbian. This is not to say that Symbian is a lost cause and you would hope developers could return the operating system to its former glory. With a new team working on the software at Accenture, there is no reason why Symbian cant return, but it would take some wholesale changes and a fresh start if we were to see the operating system on our phones in the future.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/application.asp?device=symbianos http://www.skytel.co.cr/wireless-communications/research/acrobat/020620.pdf http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Symbian_OS Symbian Foundation (2010-02-04), Symbian Completes Biggest Open Source Migration Project Ever, retrieved 2010-02-07 Menezes, Gary. (2010-09-11) Symbian OS, Now Fully Open Source. Watblog.com. Retrieved on 2011-09-25. Six Years of Symbian Produces 100 Models and 100 Million Shipments, The Smart PDA.