Symbian ain't dead, it just smells funny

NEWS Symbian got a boost today from the arrival of the second device to use the technology. The news marks a surprise reversal in fortune for the troubled mobile operating system, which had been in danger of following a string of bad news. In January Motorola pulled out of an accord with Psion to produce a Symbian-based device, delaying the launch of its first Symbian product until 2002. Psion itself is also under serious pressure, with a falling share price and dwindling profits, as the recession and the success of Compaq's pocket PC hit sales. Nonetheless, Symbian retains a strong position in the Smartphone market, with Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola all expressing support. Symbian's main rival Microsoft only unveiled its Stinger smartphone platform last month. Being slow to market will not be a disadvantage, says Jake Saunders, European Director of Strategis Group. "It's not necessarily a case of first mover gains all," he said. "Handsets until now have been fairly standalone devices, but as soon as Bluetooth takes off, people will want to connect them to their PCs." Data such as addresses on handhelds with contact files on PCs will be a killer application, and Microsoft's dominance in the PC market will give them a powerful position when it comes to smartphone applications. Saunders said: "The company which controls the intellectual property on those PCs will be in a position to control everything downstream of that. That company is Microsoft." The 9210 joins the Ericsson R380 as the only Symbian-enabled device on the market. The 9210 is an update of the 9110, which is standard issue for Nokia executives but rarely seen elsewhere. The Nokia 9210 has WAP, HTML browsing and HTML. The 9290, a Symbian-based smartphone for the 1900MHz GSM networks in the US market, is expected to be available in the first half of next year.