1.

INTRODUCTION
The Smartphone operating system Symbian OS is produced by the software development and licensing company Symbian Ltd. Symbian Ltd was established in June 1998 and is headquartered in Southwark in the Uk . 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 seeral 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.

1.1 Research introduction

Our goal is to research Symbian as complete as we possibly can in a certain amount of time and by doing so we will cover certain points. In our research we will have a brief summary of Symbians background. We will have the development behind this innovative operating system, his capabilities, security, performance and so on in mind. We will research the leading OS in the smart mobile device market; we will present a complete research about the future possibilities, the expectations and development, always having the other operative systems competing in the same market and the negative repercussions that Symbian OS is already facing. One of our first points of interest will be the platform itself. We will research points like hardware, operating systems, connectivity, security, performance and eventually future possibilities. We will learn more about the hardware support and how the connectivity is also the essential definition of IP. Next software development itself will be approached in our research. The development requirements, the IDE and Tools and the programming language are the key points here. As we all should know the native language of the Symbian OS is C++, there for, our research will pass through the programming languages that can be used on Symbian. Eventually we will have the overall evaluation, the advantages and limitations will be one of the last points we will need to talk about, such as the fact that Symbian OS is not open source software yet, although Nokia has decided to put its hardearned into the open source movement. Although Symbian has quite an amount of disadvantages and limitations compared to other operating systems, it also has a lot of advantages too, its still the most popular platform smartphone, it still has the best smartphone features and a large global development community.

1.2 Symbians introduction

The smartphone operating system Symbian OS is produced by the software developer and licensing company Symbian Ltd. Symbian Ltd was established in June 1998 and has its headquarters in Southwark, UK, and the current CEO is Nigel Clifford. Symbian was previously owned by Nokia, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and Samsung, on the 24th of June 2008 however Nokia announced it would acquire Symbian Ltd. Now, on this day, Nokia is the one and only owner of Symbian.

Symbian OS offers a highlevel of integration with communication and personal information management (PIM) functionality. As a smarthphone operating system, Symbian, can provide many applications and services such as; navigation, games, music playback, associated libraries, etc. Symbian was designed for mobile devices from its earliest incarnation as EPOC32 in the Psion Series 5.

2. LITERATURE SURVEY
2.1. SYMBIAN HISTORY
Symbian OS started life as EPOC - the operating system used for many years in Psion handheld devices. When Symbian was formed in 1998, Psion contributed EPOC into the group. EPOC was renamed Symbian OS and has been progressively updated, incorporating both voice and data telephony technologies of ever greater sophistication with every product release.

2.2. THE COMPANY

Headquartered in London, Symbian Ltd. is owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Panasonic, Psion, Siemens and Sony-Ericsson.

2.3. CUSTOMERS
Symbians 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, in addition to the shareholders, Sony, Sanyo, Kenwood and Fujitsu have all taken licenses.

2.4. BASIC PRINCIPLES

The cornerstone of Symbians modus operandi is to use open agreed standards wherever possible. Symbian is focused squarely on one part of the value chain - providing the base operating system for mobile internet devices. This enables manufacturers, networks and application developers to work together on a common platform.

3. SYMBIAN OS
By setting the standard for wireless value computing and telephony, Symbian brings together the wireless value chain. Symbian OS drives standards for the interoperation of data-enabled mobile phones with mobile networks, content applications and services: .

S60 3rd Edition is the version of the venerable Symbian mobile OS found in a variety of smart phones, not only from Nokia including its new N96) but also LG and Samsung. Designed for

devices without a touch screen, S60 3rd Edition makes you wade through lots of menus; the BlackBerry OS deals with the lack of touch much more intelligently. S60's interface dates from the days when even the smartest phones sported only a numeric keypad and a few other buttons, and it tends to make you shuffle through menus one laborious item at a time. (The BlackBerry OS does a much better job of making non-touch-screen devices fast and efficient.)It's pretty old-fashioned by today's standards, with blocky fonts and retro icons. The programs vary from phone to phone. The N96 I tried includes reasonably comprehensive suite of apps, and judged purely on available features, theyre respectable; the browser, for instance, has a zoom-in/zoom-out interface that's theoretically similar to the one in I phone OS's Safari. But the clunky interface leaves them feeling less powerful than the apps on any other phone I tried for this article

3.1 Symbian OS is characterised by:

Integrated multimode mobile telephony Symbian OS integrates the power of computing with mobile telephony, bringing advanced data services to the mass market Open application environment Symbian OS enables mobile phones to be a platform for deployment of applications and services (programs and content) developed in a wide range of languages and content formats Open standards and interoperability With a flexible and modular implementation, Symbian OS provides a core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and technologies that is shared by all Symbian OS phones. Key industry standards are supported Multi-tasking Symbian OS is based on a micro kernel architecture and implements full multi-tasking and threading. System services such as telephony, networking middleware and application engines all run in their own processes Fully Object-oriented and component based The operating system has been designed from the ground up with mobile devices in mind, using advanced OO techniques, leading to a flexible component based architecture Flexible user interface design By enabling flexible graphical user interface design on Symbian OS, Symbian is fostering innovation and is able to offer choice to manufacturers, carriers, enterprises and end-users. Using the same core operating system in different designs also eases application porting for third party developers .

3.2 A Platform For Wireless Services

Symbian delivers an advanced, open, standard operating system to its licensees. Symbian OS is flexible and scalable enough to be used in the variety of mobile phones needed to meet a wide range of user requirements. Symbian OS supports complex requirements of network protocols worldwide and enables a broad, international community. Development requirements The right SDK S60 UIQ MOAP The IDE-tool of your choice

IDE and Tools What is IDE ? An IDE is a software application that allows the computer programmer to develop software for a certain platform. An IDE normally has a: source editor, compiler and/or interpreter and debugger. Integrated Development Environment or also known as integrated design environment or integrated debugging environment. Which IDE ? Carbide C++ CodeWarrior Visual C++

programming language Symbian OS offers a choice of programming languages to the developer. Symbian OS is written in C++ , and this is therefore regarded as its primary programming language.

Java 2nd the most important programing language on Symbian OS.

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Others programing languages which you can use on Symbian; JavaSript, Assembler,WMLScript,C# , Visual Basic, OPL and so on

3.3 Providing Wireless Services

Open standards ensure global network interoperability, allowing mobile phones users to communicate with anyone, anyway, at anytime. The compelling advanced data services that operators can provide on Symbian OS phones will help minimize churn and maximize revenue.

Which evolution in the various versions? Symbian OS 6.0 and 6.1 (also called ER6 ): Bluetooth was added for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices. (2002) Symbian OS 7.0 and 7.0s: This version added EDGE support and IPV6. (2003) What is the EDGE? (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) Symbian OS 8.0: There are not great evolution has shared some APIs to support 3G. Symbian OS 9.1: Change of version 1.2 for the Bluetooth has version 2.0
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where the difference is the introduction of an Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) for faster data transfer. Symbian OS 9.3: The WIFI 802.11 and the HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) appear on Symbian OS. Symbian Os 9.5: This last version includes native-support for mobile digital television broadcasts in DVB-H and ISDB-T formats and also location services. Security The Symbian security model can be broken down into three main modules: 1. Trusted Computing Base (TCB) Kernel, file system and software installer. 2. Data Caging Protects executables and data files of applications. 3. Capabilities Define what the application can and cannot do. Capabilities: Four types of capabilites: - Open to all - Granted by the user at installation time - Granted through Symbian Signed - Granted by the manufacturer Signing an application - Open Signed - Express Signed - Certified Signing ( Symbian Signed )

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Future possibilities The leading mobile OS According to research firm The Diffusion Group, Symbian's still maintains the prominent position as the most used mobile OS, is still the most popular smartphone platform. Followed by Linux and then Microsoft, Symbian had 51% market share of the mobile OS market at the end of 2005, down from 56% in 2004, Linux Came in second at 23%, which was double its 2004 share of 11.3%. Microsoft came in third upping its 2004 market share of 12.6% to 17%. Symbian OS is still the leading figure in the smartphones market and according to Gartner Symbians market share is still the majority with a trend to decline, Gartner blames I phone and Blackberry. Although, expects Symbian to maintain its leading and says the Nokiaowned OS accounted 47,1% of the sectors total sales in 4Q08. Apple continues to redefine the definitions of what a mobile phone operating system is. Symbian remains by far the most popular OS on the market. New research from Gartner shows that for the fourth quarter of 2008 Symbian based smartphones accounted for 47.1% of the sectors total sales, with 17.9m handsets sold. BlackBerryowning RIM was next in line with 19.5% followed by Microsoft Windows Mobile at 12.4 % Apple trailed with a 10.7% market share and Linux 8,4%. When the fact that Apple is a single device vendor is considered, however, the numbers become all the more impressive for Apple particularly considering that the numbers represent a 111.6 per cent yearonyear hike. Nokia, in contrast, suffered a 21.6% annual drop. Symbian OS is still the leading figure in the smartphones market and according to Gartner Symbians market share is still the majority with a trend to decline. Symbian - open source software platform The Symbian Foundation is a nonprofit foundation, that came into existence when Nokia acquired Symbian Ltd. in its entirety, and with other partners announced on June 24, 2008 by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, NTT DoCoMo, AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, to be established to

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"provide royaltyfree open platform and accelerate innovation" with the intent to unite Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create one open mobile software platform. Nokias buying the rest of Symbian that it doesnt already own, and will then create the Symbian Foundation, in collaboration with a number of other companies, and make Symbian royaltyfree and opensource. Symbian will be available royaltyfree. Anybody that wants to use it in handsets, or have access to the complete code, will just have to join the Symbian Foundation for $1500 a year. That essentially erases Androids price advantage, and could lead to a raft of Symbianbased devices for the mid and lowtier from OEM vendors. This should significantly enhance the ability of the Symbian platform to support custom UIs. It will be a key area of competition for mobile Operative Systems, and the ability for manufacturers to create their own UI enhancements will be crucial. Perhaps its something that can change in future making it easier for people to create custom UIs on top of Symbian, rather than having to license one of the existing ones. The Symbian OS has essentially become free, and this is a smart move on Nokias part as it stands to gain significantly from the further spread of Symbian and S60. Its a significant answer to Android, and a good response to the iPhone as it should allow for a lot of innovation in the UI. The device manufacturers in the Symbian Foundation will instead look to differentiate on hardware design, software customization and service layers. Nokia is already anticipating this with Ovi as are Microsoft and Google with their respective service suites. Other handset manufacturers will be following in their footsteps. However the Symbian Foundation can also be seen as a response to the various mobile software platform groupings such as LiMo* and the Open Handset Alliance (Google's Android). Both of these groupings were offering open source, royalty free software platforms to handset manufacturers. By offering a royaltyfree and open source platform, the Symbian Foundation negates the key advantage of LiMo and Android. Android and LiMo had gained a lot of attention and some traction, but now face more of a struggle to establish themselves against the incumbent Symbian Foundation.

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Nokias buying the rest of Symbian that it doesnt already own, and will then create the Symbian Foundation, in collaboration with a number of other companies, and make Symbian royalty-free and open-source. Implications to the other OS The Symbian Foundation stirs up the future of the open mobile platform space. It does seem fair to draw the conclusion that the Symbian Foundation puts the Symbian platform in a stronger position and this will negatively affect the other players.

3.4 Developing Wireless Services

Software developers are able, for the first time, to build applications and services for a global mass market of advanced, open, programmable, mobile phones. A set of standard application programming interfaces (APIs) across all Symbian OS phones and the advanced computing and communication capabilities of Symbian OS, enable development of advanced services.

3.5 Symbian Os: Architecture

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.

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3.5.1 ARCHITECTURE DESIGN

Core - Symbian OS core is common to all devices, i.e. kernel, file server, memory management and device drivers. Above this core, components can be added or removed depending on the product requirements. System Layer - The system layer provides communication and computing services such as TCP/IP, IMAP4, SMS and database management. Application Engines - Above the System Layer sits the Application Engines, enabling software developers (be they either employed by the phone manufacturer or independent) to create user interface to data. User Interface Software - USI can be made or licensed by manufacturers. Applications - Applications are slotted in above the user interface.

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3.6 Symbian Os: Fundamental Requirements

Computer Hardware Requirements: (minimum) CPU: 1.2GHz processor, x86 architecture Monitor: 1024 x 768-pixel screen, 16-bit color Memory: 512MB Hard drive: 200 MB of free disk space Telephone Hardware Requirements: A Symbian-able smartphone is needed, not every phone can run Symbian as OS. There are some fundamental requirements which are very much essential for an OS for mobile phones.
1) It must work on standalone portable devices.

2) It must work on different sorts of devices. 3) It must be future proof.

4) It must be open to all to license on fair and equal terms.

5) It must be open to all to develop applications - again with a level playing field for all.
6) It must be based on open standards.

Perhaps the most important requirement is to work on a standalone device. Symbian OS is fundamentally designed for mobile phones - with highly advanced features - but they must still function primarily as mobile phones. This means that expectations are already set - for a user to consider buying Symbian OS based phones they must outperform the users current model in some areas and be at least equal in all others. The performance benchmark for Symbian OS is not the PC or portable computing devices but the phones that around one billion people already have in their pockets.

3.6.1 Features Of Symbian Os

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There are many features that make Symbian OS ideal for mobile devices. Some of these are briefly explained below. Operating system designed from scratch for mobile platforms 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 Best fitted for mobile market Great market share 3.6.2. 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. 3.6.3. Event Management Event management has long been considered 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. 3.6.4 Object Oriented Design
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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 Sync, 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. 3.6.5 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. 3.6.6 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: 1) Each process runs in a protected address space, thus it is not possible for one application to overwrite anothers address space. 2) The kernel also runs in a protected address space, so that a bug in one application cannot overwrite the kernels stack or heap.
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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. 3.6.7 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. 3.6.8 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. 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 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

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makes Symbian OS different from embedded operating systems, or any of its competitors, which werent designed with all these key points in mind. Symbian is committed to open standards. Symbian OS has a POSIX-compliant interface and a Sun-approved JVM, and the company is actively working with emerging standards, such as J2ME, Bluetooth, MMS, Sync, IPv6 and WCDMA. As well as its own developer support organization, books, papers and courses, Symbian delivers a global network of third-party competency and training centers - the Symbian Competence Centers and Symbian Training Centers. These are specifically directed at enabling other organizations and developers to take part in this new economy. Symbian has announced and implemented a strategy that will see Symbian OS running on many advanced open mobile phones. Products launched, such as the Sony Ericsson P800 Smartphone, the Nokia 9200 Communicator series and the NTT DoComo Fujitsu 2102V [2], show the diversity of mobile phones that can be created with Symbian OS. Other Symbian OS licensees include BenQ Motorola, Panasonic, Samsung, Send and Siemens. Over the next year, we can look forward to an even wider range of mobile phones.

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3.7 Purpose Of Symbian

This describes the key characteristics required of an operating system designed for mobile phones and explains why Symbian OS is the best-in-class mobile operating system. 3.7.1 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. 3.7.2 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. 3.7.3 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

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of distinctive and innovative products. The circle can be squared by separating the user interface from the core operating system. Advanced mobile phones or Smartphones 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. 3.7.4 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.

3.7.5 Commercial Benefits The widespread establishment of Symbian OS will bring significant commercial benefits, both direct and indirect. 3.7.6 Operators: 1) Operators will benefit from having a wide pool of interoperable devices, built on open standards. They will be able to select from a wide range of terminal and infrastructure manufacturers with a rich set of interoperable solutions. 2) In terms of value that operators can add, applications and content can all be made more cost effectively supplied - given the common OS shared across phones. 3.7.7 Indirect Benefits For The Whole Industry
1) The above benefits assume that the number of users stays constant. In

establishing Symbian OS, Nokia and the other industry players believe that there will be a Metcalfe effect - whereby the value of a network is the square of the number of users. As users proliferate, they will attract more, attracting even

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more users and consequently, more application developers, and content. This will benefit the whole industry. 2) Symbian OS is the key to creation of this virtuous circle.

4. CONCLUSION
Symbian OS is a robust multi-tasking operating system, designed specifically for real-world 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. In manufactures point of view : Symbian is a strong operating system, if you look at the current Symbian devices on the market we will see that Symbian has a pretty strong position as weve previously shown. The devices which run Symbian OS on it have proven to be during and Symbian on its own has proven his value on the market. Symbian is one of the oldest and long lasting operating systems on the market and it always had its manufactures to build devices for it.

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In developers point of view: Symbian brings its limitations when it comes to development. As earlier explained youll need a different SDK for every device. You will also have a different set of tools in each SDK this will limit the porting of programs you right for a Symbian smartphone. It will work on all devices with the same SDK but on others it will give problems. There for the conclusion is that if you would want to develop for Symbian you should be very aware of the fact that you will develop with great limitations

5. BIBILOGRAPHY

The Symbian OS Architecture Source Book by Ben Morris S60 A Programming Tutorial Guide by Paul Colton & Edward Robert www.techrepublic.com www.developer.symbian.org

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