News
Issue #2001 - 49 (December 2001)
(Updated Dec. 5, 2001)

TECHNOLOGY

Symbian OS Scores Points with Mobile Handset Makers

For years Palm OS received all the accolades, however, that may change as high-profile mobile device manufacturers continue to endorse Symbian OS for their third generation mobile handsets.

U.K.-based Symbian is owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Psion.

One of Symbian’s investors Matsushita Communication Industrial (MCI) said it will trial Nokia's Series 60 platform, which is designed to run on top of the Symbian OS. Nokia recently decided to license its Series 60 technology to companies seeking to create Symbian OS smartphones.

MCI agreed to trial the Series 60, which houses a suite of smartphone applications such as PIM, messaging and Web browsing, as part of its commitment to research, develop and adopt best-suited platforms and solutions that will support open standards and services," said Ken Suda, director member of the board, Overseas Operations, MCI.

Joining the growing Symbian community, which represents over 70 percent of the mobile phone market, is Japan's high-tech giant Fujitsu. The Japanese company said it will license the Symbian OS for its third-generation mobile handsets.

"Symbian’s technology will enable us to deliver a range of feature-rich mobile phones for next-generation networks," said Kazuyuki Tomita, general manager, 3G mobile phone division, Fujitsu. "The open Symbian OS enables us to deliver advanced devices that can take advantage of a wide range of third-party multimedia entertainment services for customers."

As members of the recently formed industry consortium advocating for a global set of open standards, Matsushita and Fujitsu share Nokia's goal of creating a large, unified mobile application market, which may see Symbian as the platform of choice for the next generation of ‘smart’ devices.

For more information: http://www.symbian.com

Mobileinfo Comments & Advisory: Symbian needed more traction. This one does give it more clout. Microsoft's Stringer OS and proprietary smart phone OS implementations will face competition from this one.

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