Symbian gets faster, cheaper, quicker -

Symbian has launched version 9.5 of its operating system, promising cost and time-to-market savings for handset vendors and richer experiences for consumers.The company claims the new OS reduces RAM usage by more than 25 per cent, to allow faster device start-up time, faster start-up time of popular applications and improvements in battery life It also introduces: standardised support for all digital TV standards and location-based services (LBS) making it cheaper and easier to bring these services to the mass market; 35 new camera features include support for tilt sensors, preset image enhancements, panorama stitching, and red-eye reduction; connectivity to home computers, enabling the transfer of music, videos and images using MTP. Symbian licenses Symbian OS to handset manufacturers. During 2006, 51.7 million Symbian smartphones were sold worldwide to over 250 major network operators, bringing the total number of Symbian smartphones shipped up to end 2006 to 110 million. “Symbian is driving the market by anticipating consumers’ mobile lifestyle changes – this means enabling even richer experiences and seamless multi-tasking to make the most of tomorrow’s technology”, said Jørgen Behrens, Executive Vice President, Symbian. “By lowering phone development cost and shortening time to market, Symbian OS v9.5 delivers on the promise of bringing the smartphone lifestyle to the mass market.”