Symbian is an operating system that’s designed for mobile phones. But as we’ve recently seen, you can run the operating system on an x86 processor like the Intel Atom chip or on ARM based processors. When asked about netbooks at a recent event, Symbian Foundation executive director Lee Williams responded that the company isn’t actively working with any netbook makers. But he did have a few thoughts about how a Symbian powered netbook should work.
First, he says that it wouldn’t be hard for a manufacturer to build a netbook that uses the Symbian operating system. But Williams says he’d like to see a netbook that works more like a mobile phone than a laptop. For instance, when you close the lid of a laptop, it typically goes into a suspend mode and you lose any connections you have to social networks, instant messaging clients, email services, and so on. He’d like to see a netbook use Symbian the same way a cellphone does and keep those connections going.
Of course, in order to do that, you’d need to figure out a way to build a device with a battery that lasts for days, not just hours.
Williams also says he’d like to be able to interact with services all the time, whether he’s online or offline. Overall, he says netbooks are already becoming what he thinks notebooks always should have been. They’re cheap, super portable, and capable of running Linux or alternate operating systems and not just Windows. But it sounds like he wouldn’t be too happy to see someone throw Symbian on a standard netbook with an Intel Atom CPU, 10 inch display, and 160GB hard drive without making a few modifications to provide better battery life and always-on capabilities.
You can see Williams discussing the issue in a video after the break.
via jkkmobile
If we’re talking about using S60 on a netbook, the real beauty would be the huge amount of free third party software, not to mention how stable S60 is.
A Symbian netbook will look like any other piece of hardware that sits on store shelves unsold.
Here, here.
Two years too little and too late – and even now they are just dreaming.
Having gotten over my first reaction (above) and applied a little thought – –
What is “connected” when the lid is closed and the machine is in your pocket?
That does not exactly require a HD video quality data rate – just one enough to change
the latest Twitter message before you next open the machine up. 😉
I have here, sitting next to me, a number of ieee802.15.4 wireless devices – –
About the size and shape of a large postage stamp and they will run for 60 to 90 days
on 2, AA sized batteries. Sh.. a Li-Ion battery self-discharges faster than that. 😉
If not familiar with that, (it isn’t very common) think: “low speed Bluetooth with the
range of cellphone wireless”. And battery times measured in months and even years.
Is he willing to pick up the air-time bill for the customers of his “always connected” machine?
I just think the device uses are too disparate, if only from a battery point of view. I’m sure people would love an always on, several-day-charge baring Netbook…but the battery power needed just isn’t there.
I look forward to the day it is.