The S60 Platform formerly Series 60 User Interface is a software platform for that runs on the Symbian operating system. It was created by in 2001, and was first released in 2002 with the Nokia 7650 smartphone. The OS platform has since seen 5 updated editions. S60 consists of a suite of libraries and standard applications, such as telephony, personal information manager PIM tools, and Helix-based multimedia players. It is intended to power fully featured modern phones with large colour screens, which are commonly known as. The S60 software is a multivendor standard for smartphones that supports application development in Java MIDP, C++, Python and Adobe Flash. Originally, the most distinguishing feature of S60 phones was that they allowed users to install new applications after purchase. Unlike a standard desktop platform, however, the built-in apps are rarely upgraded by the vendor beyond bug fixes. New features are only added to phones while they are being developed rather than after public release. Certain buttons are standardized, such as a menu key, a four way joystick or d-pad, left and right soft keys and a clear key. S60 is mainly used by Nokia but has also been used by a few other manufacturers, including Lenovo, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo, and Siemens Mobile. Series 60 was renamed as S60 in November 2005. S60 2nd Edition Also known as S60v2. Starting with 2nd Edition Feature Pack 3 S60v2. Basic 176×208 , and Double 352×416. Some devices, however, have non-standard resolutions, like the Siemens SX1, with 176×220. Nokia 5500 Sport has a 208×208 screen resolution, and the with its wide 800×352 inner display. S60 3rd Edition S60v3 uses a hardened version of Symbian OS v9. In S60v3, a user may install only programs that have a certificate from a registered developer, unless the user disables that feature or modify the phone's firmware through third-party hacks that circumvent the mandatory signing restrictions. This makes software written for S60 1st Edition or 2nd Edition not binary-compatible with S60v3. The logotype can be used with conforming programs regardless of them being native Symbian or Java. S60 5th Edition In October 2008, S60 5th Edition was launched. S60 5th Edition runs on Symbian OS version 9. The major feature of 5th Edition is support for high-resolution 640×360 touchscreens; before 5th Edition, all S60 devices had a button-based user interface. The S60 5th Edition is the last edition of S60. Its assets along with Symbian OS, UIQ and MOAP S have been used as a base for Symbian, an open source operating system being developed by the Symbian Foundation. S60 versions and supported devices Many devices are capable of running the S60 software platform with the Symbian OS. Devices ranging from the early Nokia 7650 running S60 v0. The table lists devices carrying each version of S60 as well as the Symbian OS version it is based on. Therefore, you may see a device being listed in many systems. Product Name S60 Version Number Symbian OS Version Number Devices S60 1st Edition 0. As an OS, Symbian OS originally provided no user interface UI , the visual layer that runs atop an operating system. This was implemented separately. Examples of Symbian UIs are MOAP; Series 60; Series 80; Series 90 and UIQ. This separation of UI from underlying OS has created both flexibility and some confusion in the market place. The Nokia purchase of Symbian was brokered with the involvement of the other UI developers and all major user interface layers have been or have been pledged to be donated to the open source foundation who will independently own the Symbian operating system. The new Symbian Foundation has announced its intent to unify different Symbian UIs into a single UI based on the S60 platform. Announcements made in March 2009 indicated this would be the S60 5th edition with feature pack 1. Three new devices 500, X7 and E6 were announced which will have Symbian Anna pre-installed. Symbian Belle On 24 August 2011, Nokia announced Symbian Belle as a software update to the Symbian Anna release. Symbian Belle will be available as a Software Update for Symbian Anna based devices as well. Nokia has promised support for Symbian and its newer devices till at least 2016, but no new Symbian devices will be released after Nokia 808 PureView. As a part of this plan, Nokia announced on 29 April 2011, to transfer and outsource Symbian activities to Accenture along with 3000 employees.
