Symbian is a company formed in 1998 by six of
the leading cell-phone manufacturers -- Siemens, Samsung Sony
Ericsson, Nokia, Ericsson and Panasonic. They got together with
the intent of streamlining cell-phone development, believing that
although cell-phones share similarities with laptop computers,
pagers and other devices, they have some peculiarities that make
their development needs unique.
For example:
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When you're making a call on a cell phone, you want to have
access to other features (like an address book and calendar)
at the same time. |
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Cell phones need to be "always on" like a standard
landline phone, but efficient enough to run on a battery charge
for as long as possible. |
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They need to be as functional as possible whether or not
they are connected to voice and data networks at a given moment.
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While a computer has pretty standard input methods -- almost
all of them start with a keyboard and mouse by default --
a phone may have a number pad, a modified keyboard, a touch
screen or some combination thereof. |
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