Image Editing part of Symbian OS
As part of its bid to move beyond high-end smartphones, Symbian has licensed mobile imaging software from Swedish company Scalado. The addition will make Symbian’s OS more attractive for mid-range mobile phones, according to the company.
Scalado’s technology is already used in phones from Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and others, but the agreement will make it easier and cheaper for Symbian licensees to use the Scalado technology, according to Anthony Newpower, director of product management at Symbian.
For Scalado, instead of having to negotiate separate deals with different phone vendors, its software will become part of the OS and automatically turn up on all Symbian phones, according to Magnus Ingelsten, vice president of marketing at Scalado.
The agreement includes version 9.3 and 9.4 of Symbian OS, and is offered to licensees without additional royalties. The software will improve Symbian’s imaging performance, including faster rendering, scaling and rotation and better image editing features, as well as reducing memory consumption.
The part about reduced memory consumption explains why Symbian thinks the agreement will make its OS more attractive for use in mid-range phones.
“It means that a mid-range phone with a fixed Bill of Materials (BOM) for RAM could include a higher quality camera with Scalado technology than it could without, providing additional value-added differentiation and segmentation,” said in Newpower.
