This article is more than 1 year old

Nokia: go straight to Symbian 3, skip Symbian 2

Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200.

Nokia will ignore Symbian 2 in favour of Symbian 3, a Nokia executive has said, before rolling out Symbian 4 less than six months later.

Why not simply skip straight to Symbian 4 and have done with it, we wonder?

Because Symbian 3 and Symbian 2, for all their integer version numbers, essentially add features to the immediately prior release. Symbian 2, which builds on version one, is now stable and ready for use. Symbian 3 will be ready in Q3.

That's when Nokia Taiwan general manager Michael Hsu said the company will offer Symbian 3 devices, DigiTimes reports.

According to the Symbian website, Symbian 2 adds "home screen support for embedded widgets, flexible support for different form-factors and input methods, and an improved location event framework" to Symbian 1.

Symbian 3 then chucks "graphics support for advanced layering and effects, full HDMI support... and improved data performance... for streaming HD audio and video" into the mix.

Symbian 4 has yet to be fully defined, let alone code complete. As Hsu said, the current roadmap calls for the feature set to be set in stone in Q3 and development work finalised through the remainder of 2010.

Hsu said devices may appear at the end of the year, but he also indicated we may have to wait until early 2011 to see them.

By which point, Maemo 6-based devices will have entered the market too, the report adds. Moles say some ten per cent of Nokia's phones will run Maemo by 2011. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like