Symbian today announced the next version of their OS 8.0. This covers a number of enhancements including support of SDIO which allows for SD memory expansion and other devices such as digital TV tuning or fingerprint recognition. Anyway the full press release detailing the enhancements is attached.

Symbian announces Symbian OS version 8.0

Accelerates development of lower cost Symbian OS phones; enhances device management, multimedia and Java capabilities

3GSM World Congress, Cannes, France – 23 February 2004 – Symbian Limited today announces the availability of Symbian OS version 8.0, the latest version of Symbian OS. Symbian OS is the market-leading, open standards-based smartphone operating system licensed by the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturers.

Symbian OS v8.0 is designed to meet the needs of Symbian OS licensees, network operators and enterprises by driving down Symbian OS phone build cost, providing upgraded Java and multimedia capabilities, as well as advanced device management functionality.

Key Symbian OS v8.0 enhancements include:

New ‘hard’ real-time capabilities – a core technology improvement that enhances the performance of Symbian OS and enables handset manufacturers to use ‘single core’ processors that integrate telephony and application processing, substantially reducing Symbian OS phone build cost.

Device management framework – gives network operators and enterprises enhanced remote device management capabilities that allow – for example – remote management and configuration of Symbian OS phones. Based on the OMA SyncML 1.1 open standard, this capability makes Symbian OS phones cost-effective for network operators and enterprises by reducing in-market deployment and management costs.

Upgraded multimedia framework – gives Symbian OS licensees the ability to integrate quickly and easily the very latest multimedia accelerating hardware in order to deliver high performance multimedia applications such as video streaming.

Java – Symbian OS v8.0’s enhanced Java gives developers the opportunity to access the functionality and performance of Symbian OS to create advanced Java-based applications and services. Fully compliant with network operator Java specifications and Java Community Process standards, Symbian OS v8.0 offers Java MIDP 2.0 (JSR118), CLDC1.1 (JSR139), MobileMedia (JSR135), 3D graphics (JSR184), JTWI 1.0 compliance (JSR185) and CLDC HI 1.1 Java VM optimised for Symbian OS.

SDIO – support for the SDIO standard gives Symbian OS licensees the option of incorporating SD memory expansion as well as I/O ports that allow phones to acquire new features such as digital TV tuning or fingerprint recognition, without increasing the phone’s size or circuit complexity.

Full technical details on Symbian OS v8.0 can be found at
www.symbian.com\technology\symbos-v8x.html and
www.symbian.com\technology\symbos-v8x-det.html or

by visiting Symbian at stand E31, Hall 2 at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes from 23 to 26 February 2004.

Delivery of Symbian OS v8.0 to Symbian’s licensees and partners has commenced. Phones based on Symbian OS v8.0 are expected to be announced later this year.

Marit Døving, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Symbian:
"The release of Symbian OS v8.0 will further advance Symbian’s leadership of the smartphone market. By using Symbian OS v.8.0 our licensees can develop lower cost phones which have the enhanced multimedia, Java and device management capabilities that network operators and their customers want. The potential build cost reductions, enhanced functionality and device management capabilities in this latest release of Symbian OS will drive the use of Symbian OS in lower cost, mid-tier phones, advancing the take-up of advanced services and applications being offered by 2.5G and 3G network operators worldwide.”


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