Symbian received an important lift after Nokia Corp. said that half its third-generation mobile phones will use the company’s platform by 2004.
The move ends speculation on whether Symbian’s stakeholders, including Nokia, L.M. Ericsson and Motorola Inc., will actually use the company’s operating platform. A variety of companies, including several Symbian licensees, recently released their 2.5-generation mobile phones and none included a Symbian platform. Many companies have said it’s cheaper to use a proprietary platform than purchase one.
In addition, there are only a few devices on the shelves that use a Symbian operating system, and most are Psion plc’s personal digital assistants. Psion, a major Symbian stakeholder, recently bowed out of a smart-phone deal with Motorola that would have used Symbian’s platform. Ericsson’s R380s smart phone and Nokia’s 9210 Communicator are the only phones out today using the platform.
Nokia’s announcement is especially important for Symbian as Nokia currently controls the lion’s share of the mobile-phone market. According to media reports, Nokia’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jorma Ollila made the pledge during a company road show in Germany.
Another major boost for Symbian recently came from wireless chip maker Texas Instruments Inc., which announced its OMAP-based multimedia extension can be used with Symbian’s software development kits. TI’s OMAP is a digital signal processor-based architecture that is fully open and can support all wireless industry standards, according to the company. Mobile-phone big shots Nokia, Ericsson and Sony Corp. support the OMAP platform, which is aimed at developers creating multimedia, security and m-commerce-based applications.
While Nokia came out in full support of Symbian, other licensees have not yet been as vocal. Besides Motorola, which has recently been forced to cut jobs and streamline operations and dropped out of a smart-phone deal with Psion, Ericsson too has been quiet on the Symbian front. But a company spokesman said Ericsson’s recent alliance with Sony-also a Symbian licensee-could likely be seen as a good thing for Symbian and its platform.
Symbian is aiming to compete with operating system heavyweights Palm Inc. and Microsoft Corp in what appears to be a booming market. Analyst firm IDC predicts the market for “smart” handheld devices will grow to $26 billion by 2004, and Verizon Wireless said the recently released Kyocera 6035 smart phones are selling like hot cakes, even with a $500 price tag.
And with announcements like Nokia’s, Symbian may eventually become a major player. Even before Nokia’s pledge, Gartner Inc. predicted Symbian would hold 15 percent of the smart-phone market by the end of 2002.
