Symbian interview - San Jose Mercury News, Calif., Business Question and Answer Column
Jun. 5 (San Jose Mercury News/KRTBN)--Much has been made lately of Palm Inc. and
Microsoft Corp.'s race to control the future of handheld computer operating
systems. But they are not the only competitors. Symbian Ltd., a company owned by
wireless phone manufacturers Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Psion and Matsushita,
plans to release this summer its first product that combines the personal
information management features of a handheld computer with the voice
capabilities of a wireless phone. Symbian CEO Colly Myers recently sat down with
Mercury News Staff Writer Jon Fortt to discuss the handheld market, and how
Symbian plans to shake things up.
QUESTION: The palmtop computing market is trying hard to grow up. PocketPC came
out in April, and rumors are swirling about possible offerings from Sony and
Handspring later this year. Give me your quick take on what's happening in the
palmtop market, and how you expect your products to change the landscape.
ANSWER: I think you see a growing evolution, as you've mentioned, of these
products. Microsoft is trying to gain advantage over Palm, which is the
incumbent and doing well in the market. But what we're focusing on is producing
an integrated device. And that is a phone and a computing device together, where
the functionality of the phone will be integrated and you'll just have a single
device. We think voice is a key requirement for the mobile user. It gives a
really different picture to our kind of device.
Q: You've talked in the past about partnering with Palm. Is there anything in
the works there, or do you see Palm strictly as a competitor?
A: Well, we've said we hope there would be an opportunity to work with them, and
we still retain that hope. I think through their IPO they've been busy. So I
hope at some time in the future to be able to carry on that discussion.
Q: You've said in the past that Symbian's Epoc operating system has an advantage
over Windows CE in that Epoc isn't a scaled-down version of a desktop OS, and
over the Palm OS in that it's more scalable and capable of multitasking.
Translate that into what it means for the user. What will Epoc allow me to do
with my palmtop computing device and my wireless phone that I can't do now?
A: Let's take, as an example of that, your contacts application. Contacts are at
the center of a voice-oriented device like we're doing with the Quartz device
and cell phone. With that, if you make it the center of the device, then many
different things need to access contacts at the same time, and that's where you
need multitasking to be able to make that work. We do that by making your
contacts program a server, so that any application can access it.
For example, you could be adding a business card or synchronizing your contacts,
and at the same time a phone call can come in, and that phone software can look
up that number and find out who it is calling you from the contacts database,
all at the same time.
Q: Can you give an update on when the next-generation Symbian products will be
coming to market?
A: Sure. The first fully integrated product from Symbian will be the Ericsson
R3-80, coming out in early summer. And then our first real communications
release platform, Release 6, which does this full communication and computing
integration, will be coming to our OEMs also early in the summer, and some three
to four months later, the products will come to market. So Q3, Q4 we'll see
those products. The next phase will be our smartphone release, which we call
6.1. It will result in products coming to market next year.
Q: Headsets and ear mics, which allow hands-free operation of cell phones, are
growing in popularity. Earlier you said you expect that the embedded wireless
communication technology, also known as Bluetooth, could bring us wireless phone
headsets as soon as the first half of next year. Will Symbian be involved in
developing that technology?
A: I think a headset really helps the voice ability. Again, Symbian will do what
it does -- we will provide the hook for you to implement a voice system, but we
won't mandate what voice system. We will let the licensees pick and choose. Many
of them have their own voice systems already. Let them implement that. Bluetooth
is really delivering some fantastic consumer innovation. There are a number of
people working on Bluetooth, and I think when you see that all delivered with
the products, I can't believe the types of devices there will be. I'm sure it's
just going to be amazing. It's beyond us to really imagine. It'll be
unbelievable in three to five years.
Q: Can you revisit Symbian's IPO plans?
A: When the company was formed in June 1998, we said that we had an
IPO on the agenda in some three to five years. Of course, that's only a year
away now. We also said we would have to see delivery from Symbian, because we
want to see that we're putting products into the market -- that will be
happening this year. So I think with those two things, we've been starting to
think about that for next year.
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