• MOST READ

• LATEST NEWS

Symbian^3, despite a slight delay, has a high profile handset to its name, the Nokia N8, and hopes to go commercial just as Android's extended honeymoon period comes to a close. But it will have a major challenge to convince the world that it really does represent the promised leapfrog over Android 2 and iPhone 4. The Symbian Foundation has embarked on an intense program to woo developers and licensees, and one of its tasks will be to use Nokia's support to instil confidence in the platform, while also ensuring it is perceived as multivendor. As Google knows, this is a difficult balance, and both the major platforms need to play their cards well in open standards and cross-platform support.

So Symbian has announced a new initiative aimed at developers - particularly the new breed of programmers coming from the open web and PC worlds, to expand on the established base of Symbian specialists with their heritage in an earlier cellphone generation. The Foundation will provide interested parties with development tools designed to simplify the creation of apps for Symbian^3, using the key standards of modern web platforms, HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. The new tools are available now for Windows, Mac and Linux computers and will supplement the existing cross-platform toolkit Qt - widely respected, but also closely associated with its owner Nokia.

As the GigaOm blog points out, open web standards are theoretically the way to go on mobile devices, as these become increasingly geared to the browser and the cloud. But as Palm's webOS, the most web-oriented mobile platform so far, showed, developers have not yet been bowled over. Larry Berkin, US general manager of the Symbian Foundation, told Kevin Tofel of GigaOm that it is important to support both approaches. "While there will always be a need for native apps, this will lower the cost of development for developers," he said. The open standards do not require deep programming knowledge, and Symbian has adopted a new motto: "If you can create a web page, you're a Symbian 3 app developer."

Berkin also insists that Symbian^3 - perhaps more than Palm, where he spent several years himself - will avoid the trade-offs of simple web standards, in terms of limiting the capabilities of the app. The key is a rich range of accessible APIs (application programming interfaces), he argues. According to the Foundation, the new web runtime tools support mobile specific application preview, debugging and deployment, with direct access to device capabilities like contacts, camera, accelerometers and location. "The breadth of available platform services is good. Using APIs, developers can access the dialer, calendar, camera, contacts and more." By exposing APIs to core functionality, Symbian apps can easily incorporate key functions such as taking a photo and sharing it on a web site in a couple of clicks.

Related Stories

COMMENTS

No comments yet. Be the first to add a comment!

Carrier Broadband Performance: Africa & Middle East
Carriers are using mobile broadband as their weapon of choice in the fight against the commoditization of voice and falling ARPU. This...

Voice over LTE: Market Analysis and Forecasts
VoLTE offer unique advantages in lowering a carrier's voice infrastructure economics and promises to improve voice quality, device...