NEWS
Smart phone OS-maker Symbian has hinted it would be open to expanding beyond the cellular.
Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford revealed that the company is open to approaches from those needing an operating system for non-cellular devices. "It's not part of the road-map but yes, we'd listen," he said.
Symbian is already mulling other non-cellular radios that could eventually come to replace traditional cellular networks - namely WiMax. Clifford said: "I asked my technologists [about WiMax] and they said 'yeah'. It's not something they're losing sleep about."
However, he maintains Symbian will be focusing the bulk of its energy on the cellular realm for now: "We've been set up initially to focus on the cellular market and that's where we see that greatest opportunity."
A potential move into non-cellular would see Symbian returning to its heritage: the Symbian OS has it roots in the Psion Epoc operating system, for PDAs.
Dean Bubley, founder of Disruptive Analysis, said such a cross-device strategy could appeal to organisations with fixed and mobile assets, as well as video game console manufacturers such as Sony.
Going beyond the cellular would also see Symbian ape its main rivals, Linux and Microsoft, both of which sell operating systems over a number of devices, while Symbian's mobile-only stance could work against it in such areas.
Bubley said: "Symbian comes with a certain amount of cellular baggage." Nokia, Symbian's main shareholder, launched its first non-cellular device, the 770, in 2005. The tablet was based on a Linux OS rather than Symbian.
