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A surprising number of end-users are unaware that an after-market for third-party software exists for their Symbian-based S60 smartphones. To help alter that false perception Nokia has launched a new logo program - "Designed for S60 devices" - to promote handsets built on the popular S60 interface as platforms for software enhancement.

It all started late last fall when the Finnish phone giant rechristened Series 60 with the shorter, catchier S60 name. The platform used on far more smartphones than any other, runs on top of market leader Symbian's eponymous operating system.

The problem for Nokia, Symbian and especially for developers creating after-market software is many people who own S60 phones don't know what interface, let alone what OS, their handsets runs. These folks tend to buy their devices and - this is key - extra software (if they purchase any at all) directly from carriers and phone vendors—although online retailers like Handango - who often build these operator and manufacturer-specific branded shops - have succeeded in luring others to its own Symbian/S60 store.

As a result, Windows Mobile and Palm OS device users are generally far more loyal to their platforms, not just the smartphones, and the number of applications available to them after purchase is far greater.

So, for example, according to Handango's tally of the quantity of new mobile applications uploaded to its servers last year, Symbian saw 2,886 and Windows Mobile a much greater 3,689. In a year when the total number of Palm OS software dropped by an astounding 89 percent, that platform still managed to pull in 2,125 new applications.

Nokia says it created the S60 logo program in response to developers request that it take a more active role in driving awareness to the S60 platform. The program's aim is to assist them in marketing their creations by communicating to end-users that a particular offering is designed for S60 devices.

As part of this campaign, Nokia also developed the "S60: Open to new features" branding for the interface as well. What this basically means is Nokia plans to finish what it started with the name change from Series 60 to S60 in November.

This will take time. According to the Forum Nokia, the mobile phone company's developer site, "Building brand recognition and preference will be a long but rewarding process." That process includes updating all documentation and communications to S60 from Series 60.

As readers of this Web site well know, Symbian, S60's parent OS, is under attack from Windows Mobile and upstart Linux. The Diffusion Group predicted in February the battle between mobile OS vendors will intensify with market-leader Symbian gradually losing share to those other platforms.

So the time is right for an aggressive move on Nokia’s part to increase mindshare among consumers for S60.

At the end of last year Symbian enjoyed a lead of 51 percent - most of those device built on S60 - followed by Linux (23 percent) and Microsoft's mobile platforms (17 percent).

By the end of 2010, Symbian will fall behind both Microsoft and Linux. Its share declining to approximately 22 percent, with Windows at 29 percent and Linux holding 26 percent.

Familiarity with Windows - from the desktop to the handheld to the handset - is finally paying off for Microsoft in the mobile world. With its "Designed for S60 devices" logo program and emphasis on the S60 brand, it appears Nokia is attempting to create more familiarity between its own smartphone platform and consumers as well.

Sybmian/Nokia S60 has been king of the hill for a long time in a fledgling market that is ready to take off. Analyst firm In-Stat reported in January that 31.5 million smartphones sold last year, up from 18 million the year before. By 2009, In-Stat predicts that number should grow to 115 million.

So even if Symbian and by extension S60 loses share, an inevitability in an increasingly competitive market, the number of devices the platforms ship on should increase dramatically. With this program and other recent announcements - such as the creation of single core reference designs to develop cheaper smartphones – Symbian/Nokia say they're moving their smartphone platforms forward, the benefits of which could be the mitigation of the loss of ground to Linux and Windows Mobile.