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Series 40

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Series 40

Nokia Series 40 Platform, often shortened as S40, is a software platform and application user interface (UI) software that was previously used on Nokia's broad range of mid-tier feature phones from 2002 to 2014, as well as on some of the Vertu line of luxury phones. It was at one point the world's most widely used mobile phone platform and found in hundreds of millions of mobile phones.[1]

Quick Facts Developer, Working state ...
Series 40
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Series 40 (5th Edition) showing the Menu, on a Nokia 6267
DeveloperNokia
Working stateDiscontinued
Source modelClosed source
Package manager.jad, .jar
PlatformsARM
LicenseProprietary
Support status
Obsolete, unsupported
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Series 40 was more advanced than Nokia's Series 30. It was not however used for smartphones (where Nokia used Symbian at the time, and later Windows Phone) and differentiates from them by not supporting true multi-tasking and do not have a native code API for third parties and thus do not support installable applications other than MIDlets that are written in Java. However, the simplicity of the system made it more responsive compared to Nokia's Series 60 smartphones.[2][3]

The final Series 40 phone was released in 2013, after which Nokia feature phones switched to a different platform, Series 30+.

History

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The first Series 40 handset was 2002's Nokia 7210 with a 128x128 pixel, colour display.[2][4] However in a retrospective press release from 2012, Nokia cited the first Series 40 phone to be the Nokia 7110 released in 1999,[5] which had a 96 × 65 pixel monochrome display and was the first phone to come with a WAP browser.

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Menu on a Nokia 7600 (Series 40 original version)

The original version of Series 40 was classified by Nokia as: "a UI category for Nokia 128 x128 pixel screen resolution. It comprises a passive matrix colour screen with two soft keys."[6]

Over the years, the S40 UI evolved from a low-resolution UI[7] to a high-resolution UI with an enhanced graphical look. The third generation of the platform (Series 40 3rd Edition) that became available in 2005 introduced support for devices with resolutions as high as QVGA (240×320).[8][9]

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Home idle screen on a Nokia Asha 300 with 'touch and type' interface

Series 40 5th Edition (skipping the number 4 as was Nokia's habit) was released in 2007.[10] Series 40 6th Edition was released in 2008.[11] The updated Feature Pack 1 of the 6th Edition adds touch support for the Touch and Type phones such as Nokia X3-02.[12] Subsequent versions were named Series 40 Developer Platform.

Nokia announced on 25 January 2012 that the company had sold over 1.5 billion Series 40 devices.[5]

In 2012 and 2013, several Series 40 phones from the Asha line,[13] such as the 308, 309 and 311, were advertised as "smartphones" although they do not actually support smartphone features like multitasking or a fully fledged HTML browser.[14]

The final mobile phone running Series 40 was the Nokia 515 from 2013, running the 6th Edition. In 2014, Microsoft acquired Nokia's mobile phones business. As part of a licensing agreement with the company, Microsoft Mobile was allowed to use the Nokia brand on feature phones, such as the Series 40 range.[15] However, a July 2014 company memo revealed that Microsoft would end future production of Series 40 devices.[16] It was replaced by Series 30+.

Technical information

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Applications

Series 40 provides communication applications such as telephone, Internet telephony (VoIP), messaging, email client with POP3 and IMAP4 capabilities and web browser; media applications such as camera, video recorder, music/video player and FM radio; and phonebook and other personal information management (PIM) applications such as calendar and tasks. Basic file management, like in Series 60, is provided in the Applications and Gallery folders and subfolders. Gallery is also the default location for files transferred over Bluetooth to be placed. User-installed applications on Series 40 are generally mobile Java applications. Flash Lite applications are also supported, but mostly used for screensavers.[17]

It is possible to customize the look and feel of the UI via comprehensive themes.[18]

Web browser

The integrated web browser can access most web content through the service provider's XHTML/HTML gateway. The latest version of Series 40, called Series 40 6th Edition, introduced a new browser based on the WebKit open source components WebCore and JavaScriptCore. The new browser delivers support for HTML 4.01, CSS2, JavaScript 1.5, and Ajax. Also, like the higher-end Series 60, Series 40 can run the UC Browser web browser to enhance the user's web browsing experience. The latest feature phones from the Asha lineup come with the Nokia Xpress Browser which uses proxy servers to compress and optimize web pages in a similar fashion as Opera Mini.

Synchronization

Support for SyncML synchronization of the address book, calendar and notes with external services is present. However, with many S40 phones, these synchronization settings must be sent via an OTA text message.

Software platform

Series 40 is an embedded software platform that is open for software development via standard or de facto content and application development technologies. It supports Java MIDlets, i.e. Java MIDP and CLDC technology, which provide location, communication, messaging, media, and graphics capabilities.[19] S40 also supports Flash Lite applications.

List of devices

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The following is a list of Series 40 devices released by Nokia:

Nokia 1xxx series

Nokia 2xxx series

Nokia 3xxx series

Nokia 5xxx series

Nokia 6xxx series

Nokia 7xxx series:

Nokia 8xxx series

Nokia Cseries:

Nokia Xseries (Not to be confused with Nokia X Family):

Nokia Asha series

Further reading

See also

References

External links

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