Developing Software for Symbian OS: A Beginner's Guide to Creating Symbian OS v9 Smartphone Applications in C++

Chapter 1. Smartphones and Symbian OS

Symbian OS is a full-featured, open, mobile operating system that powers many of today's smartphones. As these smartphones become more powerful and popular, the demand for smartphone software has grown. Symbian smartphones are shipped with a variety of useful pre-loaded and targeted applications, which are selected by each phone's manufacturer. Today, the average Symbian smartphone ships with over 30 pieces of third-party software pre-installed. However, the exciting aspect of Symbian smartphones is that they are 'open', meaning that users can further customize their phone experience by downloading, installing, and uninstalling applications written by third-party developers (or by the users themselves). Users can download applications from a PC to the smartphone through a link such as USB, or Bluetooth technology, or over-the-air via the Internet.

With the largest installed base of smartphones worldwide, Symbian OS offers a great opportunity for software developers to establish themselves in the mobile market by creating novel and exciting software for the growing mass of smartphone users around the world. There is a growing list of Symbian applications available as freeware or as paid downloads on numerous Internet sites (http://www.handango.com and http://www.epocware.com are good examples). They range from productivity, entertainment, navigation, multimedia, and communications software to programs that can count fast food calories, improve ...