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Technology Stocks : PALM - The rebirth of Palm Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mang Cheng who wrote (3889)	2/22/2001 2:25:35 PM
From: Mang Cheng	Respond to of 6784

"INTERVIEW-Symbian claims cellphone software lead" By Lucas van Grinsven, European technology correspondent CANNES, France, Feb 21 (Reuters) - British software maker Symbian said on Wednesday it was confident of maintaining a strong lead over rivals in the market for handheld computers with built-in mobile phones. Symbian's upbeat prediction comes in the face of recent market signals that it may be losing its edge. Fears that Symbian may have lost momentum surfaced two weeks ago, when U.S.-based Motorola, the world's second largest cellphone maker, pulled its plans to make a cellphone-enabled handheld computer jointly with Psion, Symbian's parent company. And U.S. rivals Palm and Microsoft have made inroads in mobile phones -- the world's largest consumer market -- working with Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson, two of Symbian's main shareholders. After the initial launch of a worldwide alliance of mobile phone makers backing Symbian some two years ago, the 700-strong company has gone quiet. So far only one product based on Symbian software has been introduced: Ericsson's R380. But Symbian Chief Executive Colly Myers told Reuters in an interview that the company will create a lot more buzz this year as many new smart phones and cellphone-computers come to market. Delving inside his suit jacket to pull out an Ericsson 380, he said: "Next year I'll need a substantially bigger coat to carry all the Symbian-based products." ON THE CARDS Sanyo and Ericsson have already said they will launch Symbian products in the second half of this year, while Psion is making up its mind whether it will go ahead with a similar cellphone computer, independent from Motorola. Symbian is also working with seven different companies to make smart phones, which are much smaller than mobile phone computers but will still be able to work as diaries and receive email and pictures that can displayed on colour screens. Myers hinted that Symbian could be floated on the stock exchange before the end of the year, depending on two conditions being met -- that there will be enough Symbian products in the market and that the investment climate is right. "Volume production could just as easily happen this year as next year," he said. As to whether Symbian can still boast the undivided support of its shareholders, Myers pointed out that earlier this week Germany's Siemens was the last of the big five cellphone makers to adopt Symbian software, and that Motorola has vowed to go ahead with Symbian-based cellphones. "We've got the top five now. No one else has that support," he said on the fringes of the GSM World Congress, the world's largest annual mobile phone trade show. With Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Siemens and Japan's Matsushita, Symbian has the support of producers that make 65 percent of the world's mobile phones. Last year some 410 million mobile phones were manufactured, a number that is expected to grow to around 500 million this year. NO FEAR FOR MICROSOFT Myers dismissed concerns that Symbian is facing an uphill struggle fighting Microsoft, which is after the smart phone market and is in Cannes to unveil its Stinger software for smart phones and push its Pocket PC software for bigger mobile phone computers. He was underwhelmed by Microsoft's argument that its software programmers would give cellphone makers access to thousands of applications and services. "They may have six million programmers, but that is not terribly relevant," he said, adding that every smart phone from every producer had different software requirements that did not fit Microsoft's "one-size-fits-all" approach. "These programs have to be written specifically for each device. This is not the PC market. It's very wrong to look at the application model of the PC. PCs came with nothing in them, but these new devices come with applications built in," Myers said. Microsoft has so far clinched partnerships with second-tier mobile phone makers, who jointly hold less than 10 percent of the market. Other competition looms from handheld computer maker Palm , which has 12 million handheld computers in the market and will introduce a cellphone combined with a handheld computer later this year. Japan's wireless operator NTT DoCoMo is anther potential rival as it is about to export its hugely succesful iMode cellphones to Europe. iMode has become a hit with Japanese consumers because of the many software programs and services that have been developed for it. Myers said services for smart phones will be the key determinant of success, and that these services will not be restricted to a single software system. To be sure that Microsoft will not win on this issue, Myers was in Cannes to tighten relationships with content and network providers, such as news providers and wireless operators such as Vodafone, he said. "We need to get these services and support delivered to the new devices," he said. ((European equities desk, +44 20 7542 8825, email: lucas.grinsven@reuters.com))