BARCELONA, Spain--Weeks after completing the Symbian operating system's migration to an open-source model, the nonprofit Symbian Foundation announced the release of its Symbian^3 platform, promising a series of additions and enhancements emphasizing usability and networking. Expected to be "feature complete" by the end of the first quarter, S^3 boasts faster networking, acceleration for 2D and 3D graphics in games and applications, HDMI support, music store integration, improved navigation and multi-touch gesture support, and a feature-rich homescreen--the platform also allows for more applications to run simultaneously.
Symbian^3 promises an improved developer experience highlighted the Qt toolkit's integration into all kits--in addition, the S^3 runtime will run on existing devices back to S60 3.1. The Symbian Foundation notes that that device manufacturers, network operators, hardware providers and application developers are already engaging with Symbian^3, and the first S^3-based handsets are scheduled to launch as early as Q3.
"This is by a long way the most important Symbian release for a few years," said Symbian Foundation head of technology and delivery management John Forsyth in an interview with FierceDeveloper. "We're giving developers the building blocks for the next generation of services."
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