In a move to broaden the use of its S60 on Symbian OS, Nokia announced Monday that its Qt cross-application framework will be ported to Symbian to make it easy for developers to create applications for multiple platforms.

Nokia noted that Qt's C++ development platform will facilitate developers' ability to create applications once and later deploy them on a variety of platforms, including Windows, Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Mac, Linux, and embedded Linux. Nokia's Qt software unit was created when Nokia acquired Trolltech earlier this year, and an early technical preview of the Qt offering is now available. Nokia said the first production release of Qt for S60 will be available in the second quarter of 2009.

The availability of Qt for developers is expected to boost Symbian's already dominant 66% worldwide market share of smartphone OS platforms. Qt likely will appeal increasingly to U.S. smartphone developers and manufacturers as more phones are sold to GSM providers and as infrastructures move toward more advanced architectures. Symbian has traditionally been stronger in Europe and Asia than in the United States, where cell phone service providers Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Alltel use non-GSM infrastructures.

"Qt brings an elegant and intuitive C++ development tool to the S60 platform, improving the ability to develop richer user experiences on the platform, and making S60 on Symbian OS even more attractive for developers to target with their applications and services," said Sebastian Nystrom, VP of Nokia's Qt software unit.

Nokia noted that developers already have a big target to address in the form of Nokia's more than 80 million S60 platform devices. Including all licensees, nearly 180 million S60 devices have been shipped.

Qt emphasizes its open approach whereby developers work with a community incorporating feedback as they progress throughout the entire development process. Qt on S60 works with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and later releases. Qt enables developers to create applications and user interfaces once and then deploy them across multiple desktop and embedded operating systems without the need to rewrite source code.