The terms of transaction were rather transparent: seizing the full power over Symbian, the company will make the operating system open-source for the software developers and free for the licenses. Despite the prevalence of S60 in this amalgamation, the two other operating systems (UIQ and MOAP(S)) also contribute some elements and features to the Foundation platform. Open-source code will make it much easier for third party companies to write their own Foundation-compatible software, and the royalty-free membership providing equal status for the participant companies will maximize the number of members.

 

It’s obvious that the new unified platform will take its roots in the already existing S60, borrowing only a limited number of elements form UIQ and MOAP(S), so the generic Symbian Foundation UI will be something very close to the current interface used by S60-based Nokias.

What the consequences are going to be like? It stands to reason to suggest that the very process of consolidation was initiated by the progress of the competitive platforms like OS X and Windows Mobile and the appearance of a brand new Android platform. Windows Mobile sports a multitude of compatible third-party applications while Android comes with a powerful SDK and an open source code. None of this will pose a threat to Symbian Foundation as long as it has such powerful members as Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson or Motorola. The small market of Windows Mobile devices and the young, emerging Android platform will stand no challenge to that monster. Once a goal important exclusively to Nokia, now the development of the S60 platform becomes a priority task to all the Symbian Foundation members.

 

So far the following companies declared participation:

 

·    World’s five leading cell phone manufacturers: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, LG

·    Hardware component producers: Broadcom, Ericsson, Freescale, Marvell, ST and Texas Instruments

·    World’s largest carriers: América Móvil, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, T-Mobile, Three, TIM, and Vodafone

·    A number of miscellaneous organizations.

 

 

 

Following the formation of Symbian foundation, the leading companies’ product portfolios were subjected to serious changes. Sony Ericsson cancelled development of the two UIQ smartphones, one of them originally planned to be a hi-end slider with a 5 Mp cam, GPS and QWERTY keyboard. Motorola made a series of similar decisions. At that, Sony Ericsson completely dropped production of any UIQ products, the closing entries in this line being G700 and G900 (these are still shipped in quantities to the partner companies). The release of Sony Ericsson smartphones running a new unified operating system is scheduled about the end of 2009. Xperia X1 (running Windows Mobile) will remain the only smartphone in the company’s portfolio until then.

 

Motorola took a different path, their UIQ smartphones expected to make a sound share of the company’s yearly revenue in 2009. The third generation of RAZR handsets is a good example, taking full benefit of all the previous investments of money and effort into its development made by the developer company, reluctant to drop UIQ and merge associated product lines with the emerging S60 mainstream until a much later date. There’s little hope for new Motorolas based on a unified OS platform in 2009.    

 

Nevertheless, it’s hard to challenge the future leading position of the Symbian Foundation unified OS platform. With a strong support from Nokia (whose product lines are gradually continued with more and more Symbian-based new entries) the world’s total number of Symbian-based cell phone models will overshadow the ranks of competitive platforms. Substantial iPhone sales (the gadget is running OS X) won’t keep on a high level in a long-run perspective. It’s hard to say anything clear about Google Android. Getting popular with a mass audience is not an easy task and will consume a lot of time, and a lack of support from a united vendors’ front is only making the matters worse for the new telecom market player. A hypothetical release of an Android-based smartphone by Nokia is pure nonsense, a very unlikely feat on behalf of Sony Ericsson, and as for Samsung and Motorola, these two won’t go further than keeping a few Android models in their portfolios just to keep the product range diverse, but the real preferences will always remain shifted towards Symbian, and to a lesser degree Windows Mobile.

 

Let’s get back to the London events for the time being. The last year’s show was largely focused around the innovative global positioning solutions, and this year’s headline is the touch interface in its many variations. The majority of new technologies, even those totally unrelated to the sensor controls, were demonstrated on gadgets equipped with touch control. Speaking of conventional phones, there were fewer announces aired than at the last year’s show, nevertheless the public interest to the event wasn’t dissipated. People stood in long queues just to have a look at Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. The samples put on display at the show featured an updated firmware. Samsung i7710 is another interesting handset that will become available in retail shortly, being fashionably looking and very functional at the same side. Samsung have been steadily progressing in their production output and technology level for some time, so it was no surprise to see a handset like showcased at the expo. Just like Nokia N85, this model uses an AM-OLED screen with great view angles and a perfectly looking picture, pulling the screen up to the highest of standards.

 

Another key feature of this model is a navigation button that responds to the touch, a challenge to Nokia’s NavyWheel, but functioning more like a laptop touchpad. In the web browser, it works just like a PC mouse – to my opinion, that’s even handier than any type of traditional touchscreen (as long as we are talking about models designed for single-handed operation.

 

 

 

All in all, the phone makes a really good impression, its strengths being a slim metal casing and a collection of hi-end features including Wi-Fi, GPS, HSPDA and a 5 Mp camera. It doesn’t have any direct competitors on the international market so far.

 

This one is a very interesting model and the sole alternative to Nokia E90 in its class, being much lighter and smaller. It is equipped with a fine interior keyboard and a good VGA screen.  

 

Last year’s show was remarkable for a whole flock of new Symbian-related technology announcements, but at that time none of those stepped over the threshold separating the dimension of ideas from the world of practice. So it was more like a declaration of intentions, but at this year’s show we were able to see last year’s promises in live practice. 

 

The FreeWay technology allows switching to a different type of cell network without releasing connection, which ensures a greater comfort and versatility for end user’s calls. For example, switching from GSM to IP and back again was instant. You can safely leave you home talking to a friend over Wi-Fi and your talk won’t be interrupted when you’re outside your home network’s coverage area – the handset will automatically switch to GSM once the wireless signal becomes critically low. From the technological point of view, it works fine, but there’s still a good bit of tension about proposed business models of its introduction into the real-life telecom market. The video below will give you a glimpse of FreeWay in live action.

 

 

The parallel calculation technology is used in multicore CPU chips, allowing for a more effective system resource management. A simple demo made it clear how each of the cores was put into action and deactivated if unneeded during the user’s actions in a picture gallery. We can’t say it worked just as smooth as promised, at some moments slight lags were detectable. The stand operators blamed improperly configured hardware, and the Symbian representatives kindly asked us not to take any pictures. Here you get a video:

 

 

The Texas Instruments stand showcased a couple of interesting upgrades to S60 v5 Touch, involving the latest CPOUs manufactured by that company. The biggest improvement consisted in an increased performance of the interface. The system relies heavily on hardware graphics acceleration and OpenGL ES 2.0 support.

 

 

The Eyesight company, a partner to Texas Instruments, announced a groundbreaking technology dubbed FreeTouch. It is targeted at turning your phone’s camera into an alternative control device. At the exhibition stand, the technology was demonstrated using a simple Nokia 6120 smartphone that comes with a frontal cam. By passing the hand sidewise in front of the cam, it is possible to browse the photos in the gallery, switch tracks in the player, surf the web and navigate the GPS map while driving your car. The idea sounds promising, but something has to be done about possible gesture misrecognition in poorly lit environments.