Introduction to the Symbian platform
The Symbian platform is a middleware and user interface layer built on top of Symbian OS. Symbian OS is an operating system that has been developed from the ground up for low power, small memory devices such mobile phones and it is the most popular smartphone OS platform in the world.
In 2009 the Symbian Foundation was founded to unify software from Symbian, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create an open software platform for converged mobile devices. The new platform, known as the Symbian platform, can be used by device manufacturers, who integrate their own software and hardware software to create devices.
Development overview
The native development language of the Symbian platform is Symbian C++. This is a dialect of C++ from the early days of C++ development so it looks a bit strange to a C++ developer who has developed on other platforms. However, with Qt for Symbian, you don't need to program in Symbian C++. You can develop applications solely with the Qt APIs.