Symbian 9 announced

Feb 02 2005 - 12:23 PM ET | Smartphone

Symbian Limited today announced the launch of Symbian OS 9.0. Phones using the new software are expected to hit the market in the second half of 2005. New features include:

• Multimedia - Support for Bluetooth stereo headsets, USB mass storage, advanced audio mixing and playback, MPEG and OMA DRM. Better 3D graphics, multimedia and graphics acceleration as well as support for different screen sizes and orientations,
• Email - Better filtering and sorting of IMAP email, new group scheduling capabilities, including accepting meeting invitations from standard PIM applications such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook.
• Better performance

With this releases Symbian is also trying to make it easier to add Symbian to headsets.

Symbian’s key strategic focus is to ensure Symbian OS is adopted as a platform for the development of higher volume and lower cost, advanced phones for 2.5G and 3G networks around the world. Symbian OS v9 helps lower Symbian OS licensee development costs and accelerate time to market for smaller, less expensive and even more capable Symbian OS smartphones.