Symbian^3 Shows Striking Similarities to 7 Series
Looks like Symbian will be doing a Microsoft mockup with their upcoming Symbian^3 operating system. The initial demonstration showed S^3 running off a laptop in an emulated mobile phone environment (so far, no S^3 devices are available) and the features that were shown showed an uncanny resemblance to features found in demos of the WP7.
The most interesting similarity is the way widgets and navigation is handled. While S^3 primarily focuses on a landscape view and WP7 uses portrait mode more, the two OS’ are navigated by moving around the screen in either a sideways or vertical panning motion. The widgets on the Symbian closely resemble the setup for the tiles on WP7, including how you can tack in widget boxes along pre-set locations.
Despite the similarities with another OS, the new Symbian is still something to look forward too. After several versions of stale user interfaces, the change of pace is a welcome break that users will certainly enjoy using. As far as animations and loading times go, the system was running smoothly. Hopefully, the first S^3 devices to come out would have decent processors in order to keep up the fluid and cohesive experience shown in the demo.
The demonstration was headed by Dr. David Rivas, who showed off the basic functions of the system. Aside from the navigation and customizable widgets, he also showed how the device handle media files such as music and video. More importantly, they showed that the new OS was capable of handling multi tasking –an obvious nod at the major missing feature from the Apple iPad.
Expect to see more of the new Symbian^3 operating system later this year when smart phones using the mobile platform comes out.
Get to see the video of the Symbian^3 mobile platform demonstration at GSM Arena.
Tags: Symbian
