Screenshot of a typical Nokia S60 user interface.

The S60 Platform (formerly Series 60 User Interface) is a software platform for mobile phones that uses Symbian OS. S60 is currently amongst the leading smartphone platforms in the world. It is developed primarily by Nokia and licensed by them to other manufacturers including Lenovo, LG Electronics, Panasonic and Samsung. In computing, a platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. ... Symbian OS is a proprietary operating system, designed for mobile devices, with associated libraries, user interface frameworks and reference implementations of common tools, produced by Symbian Ltd. ... A Sony Ericsson Smartphone (Model P910i) with touch screen and QWERTY keyboard Look up smartphone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the telecommunications corporation. ... Lenovo Group Limited, formerly known as Legend Group Limited, is the largest personal computer manufacturer in the Peoples Republic of China, and as of 2004 is the eighth largest in the world. ... LG Electronics (KRXS: 066570, LSE:LGLD) is a South Korean multinational corporation and one of the worlds largest electronics companies. ... Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. ... Samsung Group is one of the largest South Korean business groupings. ...

In addition to the manufacturers community includes

• software integration companies such as Elektrobit, Teleca, SYSOPENDIGIA, Mobica,
• Independent Software Vendors such as Sasken,
• semiconductor companies Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Broadcom, Renesas, Freescale
• software developers and
• operators Vodafone, Orange who develop and provide S60 based mobile applications and services.

S60 consists of a suite of libraries and standard applications, such as telephony, 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 smartphones. Elektrobit Group Plc (Helsinki Stock Exchange: EBG) is a Finnish company headquartered in Oulunsalo. ... Sasken Communication Technologies is a Bangalore-based embedded telecom solutions company. ... Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ... STMicroelectronics is an international leading supplier of semiconductors. ... Broadcom Corporation is a leading American supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications. ... Renesas Technology Corp. ... American corporation Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. ... Vodafone Group Plc is a mobile network operator headquartered in Newbury, Berkshire, England, UK. It is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover and has a market value of about £84. ... Orange SA IPA: is a mobile network operator and an internet service provider that is a subsidiary of France Télécom. ... A personal information manager (PIM) is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. ... Helix is an open multi-format digital media framework. ... Look up Multimedia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A Sony Ericsson Smartphone (Model P910i) with touch screen and QWERTY keyboard Look up smartphone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The S60 software is a multivendor standard for smartphones that supports application development in Java MIDP, C++, and Python[1]. An important feature of S60 phones is that they allow new applications to be installed 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. Java language redirects here. ... Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as cell phones and PDAs. ... C++ (pronounced ) is a general-purpose programming language. ... Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language. ...

These are a few common features in S60:

• It supports Java (J2ME MIDP 2.0 commonly, but varies from phone to phone) applications and Symbian C++ applications.
• Certain buttons are standardized, such as left and right select, Menu, Clear, and Input Settings.

There have been three releases of S60: "Series 60" (2001), "Series 60 Second Edition" (2004) and "Series 60 3rd Edition" (2005). Java language redirects here. ... In computing, the Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME (previously known as Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition or J2ME) is a specification of a subset of the Java platform aimed at providing a certified collection of Java APIs for the development of software for small, resource-constrained devices such... Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as cell phones and PDAs. ... Symbian OS is an operating system with associated libraries, user interface frameworks and reference implementations of common tools, produced by Symbian. ...

In S60 1st Edition, the devices' display resolution was fixed to 176x208. Since 2nd Edition Feature Pack 3, S60 supports multiple resolutions, i.e. Basic (176x208), QVGA (240x320) and Double (352x416). Nokia N90 was the first S60 device to support a higher resolution (352x416). Some devices, however, have non-standard resolutions, like the Siemens SX1, with 176x220. Nokia 5500 has a 208x208 screen resolution, and the Nokia E90 with its wide 800x352 inner display. The Quarter Video Graphics Array (also known as Quarter VGA or QVGA) is a popular term for a computer display with 320x240 resolution. ... The Nokia N90 multimedia has two displays and Carl Zeiss optics. ... The Siemens SX1 is a GSM mobile phone running version 1. ... Nokia 5500 Sport Phone Nokia 5500 Sport Phone is the smallest Nokia Series 60-based phone to date. ... Nokia E90 Communicator is a 3G smartphone made by Nokia and the latest model of the Communicator series. ...

It is noteworthy that software written for S60 1st edition (S60v1) or 2nd edition (S60v2) is not binary compatible with S60 3rd edition (S60v3), because it uses a new, hardened version of the Symbian OS (v9.1), which has mandatory code signing. In S60v3, a user can't just install any program; the program must have a certificate from a registered developer. Symbian OS is a proprietary operating system, designed for mobile devices, with associated libraries, user interface frameworks and reference implementations of common tools, produced by Symbian Ltd. ... Tivoization is the creation of a system that incorporates software under the terms of a copyleft software license, but uses hardware to prevent users from running modified versions of the software on that hardware. ...

In 2006, a "Designed for S60 Devices" logo program for developers was launched. The logotype can be used with conforming programs (Symbian or Java).

It is expected in 2008 that the 5th edition of S60 will be announced, the major feature being touch support. Nokia’s developers have skipped over the fourth edition of S40 platform – we didn’t see it debut and never will, since this number is considered “unlucky” in some Eastern regions.^{[citation needed]}

The most obvious advantage of S60 over S40 is the multi-tasking capability. You can open several applications at the same time.

See also

• Android (mobile phone platform), an open-source mobile platform by Google
• List of Nokia products
• Microbrowser
• Mobile Development
• Mobile game
• UIQ, another Symbian-based platform
• Web Browser for S60
• Windows Mobile

Android is a Java/Linux-based smartphone software platform announced by Google and the other members of the Open Handset Alliance on 5 November 2007. ... The following is a partial list of products branded by Nokia. ... A microbrowser (sometimes minibrowser or mobile browser) is a web browser designed for use on a handheld device such as a PDA or mobile phone. ... This page summarizes the known relative differences between the most popular mobile platform development options for handheld devices such as a PDA or mobile phones. ... Screenshot from a mobile fighting game, Fightality A mobile game is a video game played on a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, handheld computer or any type of handheld or wireless device. ... A screenshot of the UIQ one-handed interface A screenshot of the UIQ 3 pen-based interface UIQ (formerly known as User Interface Quartz) by UIQ Technology is a software platform based upon Symbian OS. Essentially this is a graphical user interface layer that provides additional components to the core... In November 2005 Nokia launched [1] the Web Browser for S60, based on the WebCore and JavaScriptCore components of Apple Computer’s Safari WebKit, an open source software full Web rendering engine that Apple uses in its Safari Web browser. ... Windows Mobile is a compact operating system combined with a suite of basic applications for mobile devices based on the Microsoft Win32 API. Devices which run Windows Mobile include Pocket PCs, Smartphones, Portable Media Centers, and on-board computers for certain automobiles. ...

External links

• What are Symbian S60 and Series 60, what do they mean, and what generations of models are there? How do they compare to Series 40 phones?
• S60 is managed by Nokia and includes a list of S60 products
• S60 Blogs - The official S60 Blogs by Nokia
• Document explaining differences and portability between various editions and feature packs of S60 - pdf
• Forum Nokia - S60 developer site
• My-Symbian - Symbian OS and S60 news and software centre
• SymbianOne - Symbian OS and S60 developer site
• BestofSymbian reviews and explains current S60 software
• Tommi's S60 application blog - Insider news and tips on S60
• All About Symbian - S60 news and information site
• Symbian Freak Website for smartphone users, with a smart phone discussion forum
• Symbian S60 Freeware - Recent freeware applications for Symbian S60
• Howard Forums S60 Section - Popular S60 discussion forum
• Howard Forums S60 Wiki - Howard Forums S60 Users' Wiki