Symbian^3, Symbian^4 And The Future Of Nokia

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By Phil Barker on May 12,

2010 at 00:00,

Nokia N8 Hands-on Preview We had the opportunity yesterday to meet up with Nokia and its Head of Design, Marko Ahtisaari, and along with getting to play with the latest gadgets, we also got a great insight into upcoming features and software, with Symbian ^4 at the heart of it. What can you expect from Symbian ^4 and other future operating systems then? Join us after the break to find out…

Yesterday offered the invaluable chance to meet Nokia’s Head of Design – Marko Ahtisaari– and find out what the main design man has planned for Nokia in the future. Ahtisaari was happy to chat about the Symbian ^4 operating system, and pointed out that we can expect to see the cutting-edge OS some time between the end of this year and the beginning of next, however.

What can you expect from Symbian ^4, then? With Symbian ^3 still under final development, and yet to be released, it may seem a little too early to expect another new OS, but rest assured that Nokia is hard at work, with Ahtisaari immersed with Symbian ^4 on a regular basis. He was keen to point out that the future OS will bring “simplicity and polish – doing less [sic] things but better”.

You can also expect larger screens, with more space to fit everything on that you could possibly need to see. Those of us that prefer a more tactile feedback are also in for a treat, with Nokia working making the interfaces less immersive – with the ability to use them without having to look at every last thing you’re doing.

Check out our Nokia N8 preview

The home screen will continue to be an important feature in Symbian ^4, with Marko likening it to a dolls house; it’s your house, how do you want to decorate it? The main point about this being the diversity on offer, and the fact you’ll be able to fully customise your Nokia.

Although Ahtisaari wouldn’t comment on the possibility of the Nokia N9 – a Nokia N8 with a sliding QWERTY keypad, he did acknowledge that there are people that like having a physical QWERTY keypad, and pointed out that Symbian will be available in multiple form factors.

Overall then, it’s quite an exciting time for Nokia fans. Symbian ^3 is nearly with us, and Nokia is already working on bigger and better things to help you get the best out of your mobile phone.

/ View all comments

Matias

Would it be possible to upgrade the phones OS by yourself in future? Say I buy a n8 this summer, am I able to update the OS to symbian^4 when it arrives?
mjoa

Upgrade from Nokia is unlikely I would guess. A community project might be possible, given the OS is mostly open source now. There is probably still some proprietary stuff that might be necessary to upgrade from Symbian ^3 to ^4 so I won\’t hold my breath.
Phil B

No official word on upgrading to ^4 from Nokia, but it doesn’t support updates for current devices – say the Nokia N97 Mini – to ^3, citing the fact it will run better on newer, faster hardware, so it’s possible there will be a similar stance for the newer OS.

Fingers crossed somebody will make it possible though, I’m quite fond of my Mini!
mjoa

It’s a nice looking handset though and my wife likes the looks. She won’t care whether it’s S^3 or S^4 and anyone who does should probably be looking into the upcoming MeeGo phones anyway

I still hope Nokia gets the software right: In some demos you can see smooth scrolling transitions between home screens and in some others it just bluntly changes from one to the next. If they don’t get small things like the transitions done for the production firmware, I’ll pass (buying one for my wife, that is).
mjoa

Phil B: The N97 doesn’t have a dedicated 3d-GPU-chip as far as I know..? I think S^3 uses the GPU for the heavy UI lifting. I’d say the N8 has a better chance of supporting S^4 than the N97 has supporting S^3.
Phil B

It’s the HD video that sells it for me, it’s staggeringly good. Not that I have much to video, but that’s not the point!!

I think part of the problem was the device getting leaked (or indeed stolen) before it was ready – as you say, hopefully any issues will be sorted out before the production model hits the shelf. Nokia definitely wasn’t willing to let us have a play with ^3, so still definitely a work in progress.
Phil B

“Phil B: The N97 doesn’t have a dedicated 3d-GPU-chip as far as I know..? I think S^3 uses the GPU for the heavy UI lifting. I’d say the N8 has a better chance of supporting S^4 than the N97 has supporting S^3.”

You’re right there. It doesn’t stop me wanting the latest OS though!!! Plus I like having a keypad.
I guess it depends on just how much ^4 differs. We’ve seen how much people are capable of achieving with Maemo though, so hopefully there will be similar levels of interaction (if wanted) with Symbian in the future.

Obviously it’s just as important to get the software running smoothly, quickly and looking good though, for the non tech geeks among us.
jozimozi

Guys this is the email I received yesterday from nokia care:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Thank you for contacting the Nokia Careline.

This is to confirm that it is not possible to upgrade the operating system of the Nokia N8. The phone has its own operating system which is the Symbian 3. Symbian 4 will be available for future Nokia phones.

Should you have any questions regarding our products or if we can be of any assistance, please feel free to contact one of our friendly Technical Support Executives at 1-300 366 733 from 8am to 8pm, AEST, seven days a week. For online assistance, please visit ‘ASK Nokia’ at our website http://www.nokia.com.au/asknokia

Regards,

Shane S.
E-mail Support Executive
Nokia Careline
M-cz77

Hi. I’m a little confused.
According to some sources (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJLptXE6DSM&feature=player_embedded), Nokia will allow Symbian^3 users to update their platform, but there will never be symbian^4. They want to make one, big system for applications (developers), so they will abandon the S^4 idea. Nokia doesn\’t want to have tens of platforms (like the S60 for example), but they want only one, which will be updated frequently. So all the features for Symbian^4 will be given to S^3 users via updates.
I think it\’s the best idea. But it\’s contradictonary with the statement posted in Jozimozi\’s mail from Nokia.
What do you think?