LAS VEGAS—The world’s leading smartphone operating system, Symbian, has a couple of new features: Symbian SQL and an advanced location-based services (LBS) capability.
GPS is built into 30% of the smartphones being shipped now with the Symbian OS, the company says, so the software will including advanced desktop and positioning technologies. Some recent Symbian-based phones in Japan include the new LBS capabilities, which are expected to appear in European models later this year.
Symbian SQL, which enables handsets to handle large amounts of data, will be in phones in the second half of the year but will be available for developers in the second quarter. Symbian used SQLite, an open source technology used in products like Mozilla Firefox, to create its SQL capability. SQL is a database management system.