Series 60 Version 3 is the big software news from the Series 60 Press Conference today in Cannes at 3GSM. Taking advantage of the enhanced features of Symbian OS 9.1 (announced eary Feb 2005), it promises to bring Series 60 to the mass volume market and push up into the high specification phones though the new scalable UI and hi resolution screen support.

Series 60 v3 devices will begin appearing in Q3 2005, and will initially feature in a business orientated S60 phone. New features reflect this, with OTA Sync support (possibly using MS Active Sync) for Calendar, Contacts and Email - and improved desktop syncing to a Desktop PC. Push email is also available, as is a reliance on the oMA DRM standards for a skinable high end music player, and other licenced content. Providing a level of comfort to contnet owners will allow more content to flow onto the platform. For those looking for a simple connectivity solution, Series 60 3.0 devices will now be recognised as USB Mass Storage Devices.

Series 60 has matured, so the form factors and forward looking designs are going to be much easier to develop under Series 60 v3.0. It's going to be fun seeing what handsets come out of this. Finally, the ability for networks to differentiate handsets shows another area where Nokia are listening to their customers and providing the networks with easily skinnable and extensible UI's, but ensuring that the Series 60 platform does not become fragmented.

As with the launch of Symbian OS 9.1, it's all going to be about the final devices, wbut with the tease pictures of new devices sneaking into the slides (including two devices, one reminiscent of the iMate JAM, and another thumboard enabled device with shades of the Palm Treo 650), the new devices look like they will be able to match the new software.

Press Release

Series 60 3rd Edition's new features focus on enhanced multimedia and enterprise functionality
February 14, 2005




Latest edition of the Series 60 Platform takes smartphones to the mass market

Cannes, France - Nokia today introduced the new edition of the Series 60 Platform, the world's leading smartphone software. The Series 60 Platform 3rd Edition will enable Series 60 handset manufacturers to create smartphones for various user segments, device formats and better target high volume consumer markets. Furthermore, Series 60 3rd Edition with the latest version of Symbian OS forms an unparalleled combination, enabling licensees to design enterprise grade devices. The Series 60 3rd Edition, which runs on Symbian OS v9.0, will be available for licensees in mid-2005.

The Series 60 3rd Edition's new features focus on enhanced multimedia and enterprise functionality, sustainable application business support, state-of-the-art customization enablers and improved platform architecture. The Series 60 3rd Edition will also include the features and functions of the previous editions, including multiradio, extensive application suite, scalable UI and high-resolution support.

The global smartphone market is currently experiencing rapid growth. Nokia will have shipped approximately 20 million Series 60 based devices by the end of February and estimates the overall smartphone market in 2005 to exceed 50 million units. In 2008, Nokia expects the smartphone market to be around 25 percent of the total mobile device market.

"The Series 60 3rd Edition significantly enforces our strategy to support smartphone evolution towards different segments of the consumer mass market and enterprise. There will be a clear move towards multiple device segments where different user and market needs will drive the development. Enterprise and business or imaging, music, video and games focused smartphones require a robust, configurable software platform with a comprehensive number of new features," said Antti Vasara, Vice President, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, Nokia.

The new security framework offers better protection for business critical data and provides a more secure and trusted application development and business environment. The Series 60 3rd Edition also includes significant improvements in many business critical platform features, such as calendar, synchronization and device management. These, together with the new security framework, enable licensees to build more versatile and robust enterprise grade mobile devices.

For extensive multimedia capabilities, the Series 60 3rd Edition will offer a new music player, more functionality for rich media content, USB mass memory storage and high-quality multimedia rendering. The new music player will offer seamless and easy-to-use music downloading with personalized themes and skins. The OMA Digital Rights Management (DRM) v2.0 brings enhanced usability to rich media content and simultaneously provides high-security content protection. Future smartphones based on the new edition can function as a normal USB memory stick. This way, music can be easily and quickly transferred from PC to mobile.

The new functionality on a platform architecture level includes increased support for different hardware configurations, including single and dual-chip hardware architectures and improved performance. The hardware flexibility will allow manufacturers to target devices for specific segments.

The new framework of Series 60 3rd Edition supports rich customization, enables improved support for extending Series 60 core applications with operator specific needs and yet ensures service and application compatibility between Series 60 based devices. The framework includes customization capabilities for building and integrating operator specific service applications, feature variation, service settings and user interface (UI) look and feel. This framework, combined with an increased compliancy with operators' requirements, enables more effective and scalable operator specific customization of Series 60 based devices. Consequently, operators will be able to deploy new services and create a stronger brand interface with customers.

The Series 60 3rd Edition will benefit application developers with a programming environment that enables developers to reach a whole new level of performance and an increased amount of segmentation potential with targeted features and applications for enterprise, gaming, music, video and other market sectors. New features for developers - such as location, Web Services and Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) support - will allow the developers to create more compelling applications with greater ease.