CTIA: Symbian scales down OS in latest release

ORLANDO--Symbian today announced the latest version of its mobile phone OS, Symbian v9.5, the first release of its smartphone platform targeted at mid-range phones.

Symbian officials said that the new release is designed specifically with lower memory, processor and battery costs in mind, allowing Symbian to scale to its software downwards at a time where the basic capabilities of phones is scaling upwards. The result is an operating system that can work on the typical hardware set of feature phones being released today.

Symbian is the world’s leading smartphone platform though its penetration in the U.S. is rather lackluster due to competitive pressures from homegrown companies like Micorsoft, Palm and Research in Motion as well as Symbian majority owner Nokia’s lower market share here. So far Symbian has made its mark in the high-end multimedia and business phone market as exemplified by Nokia’s N-Series and E-Series platforms, but at significantly higher prices than the feature phones that make up the majority of the mid-range feature phones sold in the U.S.