Ijetr021120

International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-2, Issue-1, January 2014
38 www.erpublication.org

Abstract— For many years, the symbian operating system was
considered to be the undisputed Kaiser of mobile platforms.
The concept of a large screen, data—centric device which runs
applications does not seem revolutionary now, but it was
symbian that had initiated these advancements in the world of
mobile technology. Until the development of android, symbian
was considered to be the epitome, as far as mobile platforms
are considered. But as soon as android hit the market, its users
rose at an alarming rate. Today, it is the android operating
system that has replaced the symbian operating system. There
are various reasons as to why and how this happened .The main
objective of this research paper is to explain all these analytical
and technical reasons. .In this research paper I will be talking
about the android and symbian operating systems, their
features , advantages , lack points and compare them on the
basis of their history , applications , capabilities , graphical
user interface , kernel , execution , upgrades available and
various other factors .This paper is a complete collection of all
the arguments and comparisons that prove that symbian is a
story of the past, and android is the new leader.
“SYMBIAN IS LIKE A SINKING SHIP, AND EVEN ITS
CAPTAIN (NOKIA) HAS DECIDED TO ABANDON IT. ON
THE OTHER HAND, ANDROID IS LIKE THE RISING SUN,
EVERYONE IS CAPTIVATED BY ITS CHARISMA.”
-SUDHAR PICHAI, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
(ANDROID, CHROME AND APPS) GOOGLE.
General Terms
Comparative study between the android and symbian
operating systems.
Index Terms— Android, symbian, mobile operating system,
kernel, bugs, market share.
I. INTRODUCTION
It may be sliding into obscurity today, but symbian was a
mondo success in the mid-to-late 2000‘s. Back in the
mid-2007, approximately 65% of the cell phones ran on the
symbian operating system. The London-based symbian
designing software took phones into a world beyond simply
making calls and sending text messages. But with the launch
of the first android powered phone, htc dream, which was
launched on 22 October 2008, symbian‘s downfall began.
Since 2008, Android has seen numerous updates which have
incrementally improved the operating system, adding new
features and fixing bugs in previous releases. Each major
release is named in alphabetical order after a dessert or
Manuscript received January 07, 2014.
Navneesh Singh Malhotr, Department of electronics and Communication,
Jamia Millia Islamia
sugary treat; for example, version 1.5 Cupcake was followed
by 1.6 Donut. The latest released version is 4.3 Jelly Bean;
however, version 4.4 Kit-Kat was announced on September
3, 2013.
II. SYMBIAN
A. History of Symbian
Symbian is a mobile operating system and computing
platform designed for smart phones [10]. Symbian was
originally developed by Symbian Ltd., as a descendant of
Psion's EPOC and runs exclusively on ARM processors. The
current form of Symbian is an open-source platform
developed by Symbian Foundation in 2009, as the successor
of the original Symbian Operating system [17]. Symbian rose
to fame from its use with the S60 platform built by Nokia,
first released in 2002 and powering most Nokia smart
phones. UIQ, another Symbian platform, ran in parallel, but
these two platforms were not compatible with each other.
Symbian^3, was officially released in Q4 2010 as the
successor of S60 and UIQ, first used in the Nokia N8, to use a
single platform for the OS. In May 2011 an update, Symbian
Anna, was officially announced, followed by Nokia Belle
(previously Symbian Belle) in August 2011.The Nokia 808
Pure View is official the last Symbian Smartphone.
B. Symbian and its features
Since mobile phone resources and processing environments
are highly constrained, Symbian was created with 3 design
principles: (i) Real time processing, (ii) Resource limitation,
and (iii) Integrity and security of user data. To best follow
these principles, Symbian uses a hard real-time,
multithreaded microkernel, and has a request-and-callback
approach to services. Symbian‘s system model is segmented
into 3 main layers [11] :
a. OS Layer: Includes the hardware adaptation layer
(HAL) that abstracts all higher layers from actual
hardware and the Kernel including physical and
logical device drivers. It also provides
programmable interface for hardware and OS
through frameworks, libraries and utilities etc. and
higher- level OS services for communications,
networking, graphic‘s, multimedia and so on.
b. Middleware Layer: Provides services (independent
of hardware, applications or user interface) to
applications and other higher-level programs.
Services can be specific application technology such
as messaging and multimedia, or generic to the
device such as web services, security, device
management, IP services and so on.
c. Application Layer: Contains all the Symbian
A Comparative study between the android and
symbian operating systems
Navneesh Singh Malhotra

A Comparative study between the android and symbian operating systems
provided applications, such as multimedia
applications, telephone and IP applications etc.
Symbian's design is subdivided into technology domains,
each of which comprises a number of software packages [13].
Each technology domain has its own roadmap, and the
Symbian Foundation has a team of technology managers who
manage these technology domain roadmaps.
The Symbian System Model [11] illustrates the scope of each
of the technology domains across the platform packages.
Packages are owned and maintained by a package owner, a
named individual from an organization member of the
Symbian Foundation, who accepts code contributions from
the wider Symbian community and is responsible for
package.
III. ANDROID
Android is a computing platform designed for use in
smartphones and other devices [6]. This technology, which
is owned by Google, Inc., includes an operating system,
software and applications. The operating system is based on
Linux, which provides advanced computer processing.
Android technology is maintained and continues to be
developed by the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
Android is open source and Google releases the code under
the Apache License. This open-source code and permissive
licensing allows the software to be freely modified and
distributed by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and
enthusiast developers.
A. History of Android
Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California in
October 2003 by Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich
Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc.), Nick
Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (headed
design and interface development at WebTV to develop, in
Rubin's words "smarter mobile devices that are more aware
of its owner's location and preferences"[5]. The early
intentions of the company were to develop an advanced
operating system for digital cameras, but when it was
realized that the market for the devices was not large enough,
they diverted their efforts to producing a smart phone
operating system. Despite the past accomplishments of the
founders and early employees, Android Inc. operated
secretly, revealing only that it was working on software for
mobile phones. Google acquired Android Inc. on August 17,
2005, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. Key
employees of Android Inc., including Rubin, Miner and
White, stayed at the company after the acquisition. Not much
was known about Android Inc. at the time, but manyassumed
that Google was planning to enter the mobile phone market
with this move. At Google, the team led by Rubin developed
a mobile device platform powered by the Linux kernel.
In 2010, Google launched its Nexus series of devices—a line
of smart phones and tablets running the Android operating
system, and built by a manufacturer partner. HTC
collaborated with Google to release the first Nexus
Smartphone, the Nexus One. Since then, Google has become
famous for its nexus series , which includes both , mobile
phones as well as tablets.
B. Android and its features
The Android platform is a software stack for mobile
devices that consists of an operating system, middleware
and key applications [4]. Android offers many features
covering the areas of application development, Internet,
media, and connectivity. These features include Application
framework, Dalvik virtual machine, Integrated browser,
Op- timized graphics, SQLite for structured data storage,
Media support for common audio, video, and still image
formats, GSM Telephony, Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi,
Camera, GPS, Compass, and a rich Development
environment. The Android platform primarily consists
[14]:-
a. Applications: This in cludes a set of core applications
that come with the Android distribution like Email
Client, Messaging application, Contacts application,
browser, Web browser etc.
b. Application Framework: This layer has been designed to
facilitate the reuse of components in Android. With the
help of Application Framework elements (such as, Intents,
Content Providers, Views, and Managers) in Android, de-
velopers can build their applications to execute on Android
Kernel and inter-operate among themselves and with
existing applications.
c. Libraries: Libraries include System C library, Surface
Manager, 2D and 3D graphics engine, Media Codes, the
SQL database SQlite and the web browser engine
LibWebCore.
d. Android Runtime: The Android runtime has two
LIBC
OPEN
GL
SGL
SSL SURFAC
E
MANAGE
R
SQLITE
MEDIA
FRAME
W.
WEBKIT
FREETYP
E
LIBRARI
ES
Apps
Contacts Browser Home Phone ……….

components. One is a set of Core libraries which provides
the functions available in Java .The other is the Dalvik
virtual machine which operates like a translator between the
application side and the operating system. Every Android
application runs in its own process, with its own feature and
advantage of the Dalvik virtual machine.
e. Linux Kernel: Android uses a modified version of Linux
for core system services, such as Memory Management,
Process Management, Network Stack, Driver Model and
Security. For more information on the Android platform
and a schematic of the Android architecture the readers are
referred to [13] and [3].
IV. POINTS OF CAMPARISON
In an interview in 2008, Andy Rubin, Google‘s director of
mobile platforms commented that [1], ―There should be
nothing that users can access on their desktop that they
cannot access on their cellphones.‖
The android operating system managed to satisfy the above
stated quote, but symbian was not completely successful in
this venture. There are various points and reasons because of
which android was successful in taking over symbian and
becoming the most popular and sought after operating system
in today‘s time:-
 The applications for symbian involve a very long and
tedious set of codes. Hence, the number of available
applications is inconsiderable in comparison to the ones
available for android.
 In 2005[10] through ‗Symbian Signed‗, an initiative, gave
third-party apps the symbian stamp of approval without
the need to get them checked out by a testing house.
While 10,000 applications is not much, it did take over
seven years for symbian to reach that milestone.
However, "as it turns out, after-market software sales for
symbian smart phones remained low", according to an
academic paper authored by former symbian exec David
Wood and San Jose university professor Joel West. On
the other hand , the android operating system reached
the milestone of 100,000 in less than 2 years , from the
year its rage began .
 Large communities of developers [2] regularly write
applications (apps), including games, social
networking, and business modules, for Android smart
phones. There are a wide range of free Android apps,
including games and productivity titles, and p a i d apps
are even more common. Android technology — which is
used by thousands of developers because it is freely
available for download — has given software developers
the opportunity to sell their creations to a wide group of
consumers.
The chart shown depicts the rise in the number of
available applications for android [9] from 2009 till
2013.
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
1200000
NO.OFAPPLICATIONS
YEAR
ANDROID
 Symbian was designed in the 1990s for devices with
very little power, and even fewer capabilities. It
IPC
DRIVER
KEYPAD
DRIVER
WIFI
DRIVER
AUDIO
DRIVER
POWER
MANAGE
MENT
DISPLAY
DRIVER
CAMERA
DRIVER
FLASH
MEMORY
DRIVER
LINUX
KERNEL

doesn't even support proper C++ exceptions, and
has some major legacy support issues.
 Developers usually design and write applications to a
particular GUI (GRAPHICAL USER
INTERFACE). The more GUIs, the more
fragmented the development process becomes and
the harder it is to provide decent quality assurance
and customer support. This is a major drawback for
symbian due to the continuous shifts in their GUIs.
 Android consists of a kernel based on Linux kernel
[14], with middleware, libraries and APIs written in
C, and application software running on an
application framework which includes Java-
compatible libraries based on Apache Harmony.
Android uses the Dalvik virtual machine with
just-in-time compilation to run Dalvik 'dex-code'
(Dalvik Executable), which is usually translated
from Java bytecode. Whereas, The Symbian kernel
supports real-time response to build a single-core
phone around it—that is, a phone in which a single
processor core executes both the user applications
and the signaling stack. The real-time kernel has a
microkernel architecture containing only the
minimum, most basic primitives and functionality.
It has been termed a nano kernel, because it needs
an extended kernel to implement any other
abstractions. For further information regarding
analysis of Dalvik virtual machine, please refer to
[15].
 The computing power of Android smart phones[3] is
more than Symbian because of the newer and more
powerful processes with a frequency of 1 GHz and
more (with Symbian to 680 MR). Android has
greater screen resolution. So, for example, the
Android-Smartphone is much more convenient to
read and surf the Internet. Memory for some models
is up to one gigabyte, while Symbian applications
are often closed due to lack of memory. Android is
trying to use the newest, namely, the graphics
processor, the performance of which is 3-4 times
greater than that of Symbian.
 Portability is a very important assessment criterion.
Symbian OS has many references in this area and
having standardized architecture and the openness
to software. But the fact that Symbian mostly runs
on Nokia cell phones and that it is not Java based
lets it fall behind Android. The Android Mobile
platform is a Linux & Java based which allow us to
use it on many different platforms unlike Symbian .
 The qualities of Android reveals the fact that it offers
unlimited applications whilst the Symbian provides
restricted. Also, platform offers a whole lot much
more choices on the subject of user‘s
productiveness.
 From a developer's point of view also, Android has
several advantages, as listed below[5]:-
1.)The entire Application framework can be reused and
replaced by selective components.
2.)Support for 2D and 3D graphics (OpenGL ES 1.0).
So, lot of business for animation developers.
3.)Reliable and enhanced data storage (using SQLite
framework).
4.) Developers can create media common applications,
since it supports common media.
5.) File formats (MPEG, MPEG3, MPEG4, H.286, AAC,
AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF and more).
6.) GSM, EDGE, 3G, HSCSD, Wi-Fi network applications
support (Depends on hardware) .
7.) Open source Web-Kit and Engine-based
web-browser.
8.) GPS, Navigational compass, Touch-Unlock, and
accelerometer applications support (Depends on
hardware).
9.) Androids development environment includes a device
emulator, debugger, performance profiling tool, and an
Eclipse IDE plug-in.
 Whereas, in symbian, commercial developers who can
afford the cost can apply to have their software signed
via the Symbian Signed program. Developers can self
sign their own programs. But, the available features do
not include access to Bluetooth, GSM, voice calls, GPS
etc. Some operators have decided to reject all
certificates other than the Symbian Signed certificates.
 Symbian OS is subject to a variety of viruses[8].Some
programs are listed below[10] and [16]:-
Drever.A is a SIS file trojan that tries to disable the automatic
startup from Simworks and Kaspersky Symbian Anti-Virus
applications. Hence , it does not allow the anti viruses to start
up and causes other viruses to affect the phone as well.
Locknut.B is a SIS file Trojan that pretends to be a patch for
Symbian S60 mobile phones. When installed, it drops a
binary that will crash a critical system service component.
This will prevent any application from being launched in the
phone.Hence.it causes the phone to hang continuously and
hinters its functioning.
Fontal.A is an SIS file Trojan that installs a corrupted file
which causes the phone to fail at reboot. If the user tries to
reboot the infected phone, it will be permanently stick on the
reboot, and cannot be used without disinfection – that is, the
use of the reformat key combination which causes the phone
to lose all data. Hence, if the phone gets infected by this virus,
then the user is bound to loose his or her data.

 Symbian is also prone to a lot of bugs. In computer
technology, a bug is a coding error in a computer
program. The process of finding bugs and removing
them is called debugging. A runtime bug is an error ,
that occurs while running the program .
In a research paper discussing about the bugs present in the
symbian operating system, a total of 100 bugs were taken into
account and the number of bugs present in the various
segments of the operating system were observed [6].
The table above shows the number of bugs and the bug
densities in various segments of a symbian operating system
, from a total of 100 bugs that were considered .The chart
representing the same is shown below:-
kernel & os
security
multimedia
web
home scr.
build pck.
Most of the bugs (more than 90%) are permanent in
nature, suggesting that the codebases are not yet mature.
Development tools, Web, Multimedia and Build failures are
most prevalent in the platform. This suggests the necessity
for better mobile application development tools and need for
caution in using third-party libraries. For further knowledge
please refer [8] and [16].
V. RESULT AND CONCLUSION
The result of this research paper can be simply estimated after
considering the various prudent and rational comparisons
drawn between the android and symbian platforms .The
android is a more advanced and user-friendly operating
system than symbian. The android operating system not only
beats the symbian operating system on technological grounds
, but also on the basis of popularity and sales.
The chart shown below [7] depicts the comparison between
android and symbian on the basis of their percentage market
share in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 .From the chart it is
absolutely clear that by mid-2013, android holds a whopping
79% market share under it, making it the leader of mobile
platforms.
The second chart shows the drop in the worldwide shipments
of mobile phones running on the symbian operating
system[14]. These worldwide shipments are in millions of
devices and the graph is a proof of the face that symbian is
past :-
Change wave research that has carried out a survey in 2012
for cell phone satisfaction rating by mobile operating system
which shows that 72 % people are satisfied with android OS
as compare to the symbian operating system. The graph for
the same is shown below [18] :-
Segments Bug Density
(x104
)
No. of bugs
kernel and os
services
0.03 12
Security 0.08 6
Multimedia 0.12 22
Web 0.17 31
home screen 0.38 10
Build package 0.63 19

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
% of
satisfied
users
symbian android
type of os
symbian
android
From the graph we can see that 72% of the total users of
android are satisfied, whereas, only 33% of the total users of
symbian are satisfied.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Big thanks to my teacher and mentor professor M.T Beg
(Head of department, electronics and communication, Jamia
Millia Islamia) for his guidance and knowledge. Special
thanks to Harman Malhotra, my elder brother and an
engineer ( electronics and communication ), for his extensive
support and help.
REFERENCES
[1] Future of android (http://news.bbc.co.uk)
[2] Open source os – The future of mobile (By Juniper Research)
[3] Kamboj Gupta,(2012) ―Mobile Operating Systems, International Journal of
Engineering Innovation & Research, Volume 1, Issue 2, ISSN: 2277 –
5668, Pp 115-120
[4] Android by 2012, a study on the present and future of Google‘s Android by
Dotcom Infoway
[5] Gaurav Jindal (2012) -A Comparative Study of Mobile Phone‘s Operating
Systems, International Journal of Computer Applications and Information
Technology , volume 1,issue 3, ISSN: 2278-7720
[6] Characterizing Failures in Mobile OSes: A Case Study with Android
and Symbian -Amiya Kumar Maji, Kangli Hao, Salmin Sultana
[7] Top Smartphone Operating Systems, Shipments, and Market Share
IDC(www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23638712)
[8] A Survey of Mobile Malware in the Wild Adrienne Porter Felt, Matthew
Finifter, Erika Chin, Steven Hanna, and David Wagner , University of
California, Berkele
www.cs.berkeley.edu/~emc/papers/mobilemalware.pdf
[9] Number of available Android applications
www.appbrain.com/stats/number-of-android-apps
[10] Symbian operating system on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS
[11] Symbian System Model()
[12] Symbian and its features (symbian.org)
[13] WHAT IS ANDROID ? ( HTTP://DEVELOPER.ANDROID.COM )
[14] ANDROID BEFORE ANDROID': THE LONG, STRANGE HISTORY OF SYMBIAN
AND WHY IT MATTERS FOR NOKIA'S FUTURE
(http://www.zdnet.com/android-before-android-the-long-strange-history-
of-symbian-and-why-it-matters-for-nokias-future-7000012456/ )
[15] Analysis_of_dalvik_vm(http://imsciences.edu.pk/serg/wp-content/uploads/
2009/07/Analysis-of-Dalvik-VM.pdf)
[16] Malware_and_spyware(http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/ma
licious/malicious-android-applications-risks-exploitation_33578)
[17] J. Gozalvez, ―First Google's android phone launched‖, IEEE Vehicular
Technology Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 69, December 2008.
[18] Google Android: An Emerging Software Platform For mobile devices
Nisarg Gandhewar et al. / International Journal on Computer Science and
Engineering (IJCSE)
Navneesh Singh Malhotr, Department of electronics and Communication,
Jamia Millia Islamia

Ijetr021120

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