The Symbian Foundation to Make Significant Symbian OS Changes

You should already be aware of the fact that The Symbian Foundation has already scheduled the release of the next Symbian OS versions. The next version is Symbian^2 or the equivalent of S60 5th Edition Feature Pack 1.

The new OS should be ready by next week but the first devices will arrive at the beginning of next year. It will be followed by Symbian^3 which will improve the communication architecture, multimedia and graphics functionality. The first devices running it should be ready in the second half of 2010.

Symbian^4 is the OS which will bring full integration and optimization of Qt into Symbian platform.The "Orbit" extension library for Qt will replace AVKON and there will be introduced a new "Direct UI" for interaction and navigation logic. Symbian will therefore use a Qt-based UI instead of the AVKON UI. Are we ready for that? The first devices will be available to customers in 2011, so we have a long time to go until we see them.