Symbian Ltd. has just announced the launch of Symbian OS 9.5, the latest version of its operating system for smartphones. The fact that this operating system is at the heart of 110 million devices that have shipped around the world makes this a very significant development.

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Symbian 9.5 offers performance improvements while at the same time reduces requirements on memory, processor and battery. Memory optimization features like automatic RAM de-fragmentation can reduce average RAM usage in up to 25 percent.

Smartphones running this new version will have faster device start-up times and quicker launching of popular applications.

The latest version will also add advanced camera features, including support for tilt sensors, preset image enhancements, panorama stitching, and red-eye reduction.

In addition, it will sport Wi-Fi to 3G connection roaming. A device can do push-email or VoIP on a Wi-Fi network when in the office and automatically switch to a 3G cellular-wireless network when on the move.

Symbian OS 9.5 is backward compatible with all versions of the v9 family

More information is available on the Symbian Ltd. web site.

Some Background

The Symbian OS provides the underpinnings for smartphones and cellular-wireless handhelds, but it doesn't include a user interface.

Nokia Series 60 and UIQ are user interfaces that run on top of the Symbian operating system. A large percentage of Symbian-based devices run Series 60.