re: Symbian Smartphones v. Palm/Microsoft
>> Dominating Smartphones
Will Symbian's operating system appeal to the mass market? Some say 'no' because early EPOC handsets, such as Ericsson's R380 World Phone, target business users, not the masses.
Sue Marek
April 16, 2001
Wireless Week
Originally envisioned by joint venture partners Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Psion to be the dominant software operating system behind next-generation smartphones, London-based Symbian Ltd.'s EPOC operating system has yet to live up to its hype.
With licensing agreements from top handset manufacturers in the world - Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Siemens, Kenwood, Panasonic, Psion, Sanyo and Sony - industry insiders predicted that EPOC would dominate the mobile phone software arena. But so far, that hasn't happened.
The operating system is only available in a handful of devices, some of which are still months away from shipping. And competition is growing from operating systems developed by Microsoft and Palm. However, Symbian executives remain confident that EPOC will prevail and say that EPOC-based handsets and devices will proliferate this year, with 2002 being the banner year for the software platform.
"Our manufacturers already manufacture 75 percent of the cellular phones in the world," says Trevor Strudley, Symbian's director of market development in North America. "You will see a steady stream of EPOC devices later this year."
At CeBIT 2001 in March, Symbian unveiled its version 6.1 platform, which is designed for GPRS-enabled smartphones and supports WAP 1.2 and advanced Bluetooth applications. Strudley admits that delays in migrating to advanced networks have affected Symbian, but he expects to see handsets using the GPRS platform in about six months.
One EPOC-based device currently on the market is Ericsson's R380 World Phone, a GSM handset that combines the functionality of a mobile phone with a PDA. The device, which is popular among business users, comes with a WAP browser and can send and receive e-mail. The R380 has been available for about six months.
Meanwhile, the Nokia 9210 is scheduled to debut in the first half of this year and also targets the business segment.
Because these early EPOC handsets are geared toward the business user, critics say that Symbian's platform will not become the mass-market operating system originally envisioned. Instead, many experts believe that consumers will be satisfied with devices that use low-cost proprietary operating systems developed by the individual vendors. Although Nokia and Ericsson are using EPOC for certain handsets, the manufacturers also have their own proprietary software for some of their less-sophisticated Internet-enabled handsets.
"Standard phones will use operating systems that are proprietary and unique," says Kenneth Dulaney, vice president and research area director for the Gartner Group. Manufacturers will use Symbian, Palm and Microsoft's operating systems for smartphones, PDAs and other keyboard-based machines. And this is where Symbian may run into some difficulties. Dulaney says that the company's EPOC software likely will dominate the smartphone arena with as much as 30 percent or 40 percent of the market by year-end 2002, but he cautions that smartphones have not yet proved their popularity.
Dulaney asserts that if Symbian is dedicated to becoming a mass-market operating system, it will have to work harder to establish a brand name. "They need to help small developers with marketing the platform," Dulaney says.
Despite the criticism, Strudley insists that the company is on track with its mass-market plans. Symbian anticipates that handheld devices will progress similarly to the personal computer market in which early adopters go after the high-end devices. But in time, as these high-end features become easier to use, people expect to find them in every phone.
Many of the initial applications target business users. Last month, Symbian aligned with Aether Systems Inc., fusionOne Inc., Pumatech Inc. and Starfish Software Inc. (a Motorola subsidiary) to provide Symbian-based devices with connectivity to corporate intranets, personal computers, network services and other mobile devices. In addition, the company teamed with IBM to make Symbian-based devices compatible with IBM's data management software.
But while a number of manufacturers say they have EPOC-based projects in the pipeline, many are far from becoming reality. And with heavy hitters such as Microsoft and Palm anxious to tap this potentially lucrative market, Symbian needs to penetrate the market with EPOC-based devices before it loses its potential lead. <<
- Eric - |
