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To: elmatador who wrote (2045)	2/27/2002 10:58:05 AM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 9255

re: No Symbian IPO this year >> Software Flotation Ruled Out For This Year: Symbian Focus Returns To Operating System Feb 27, 2002 Financial Times Companies & Finance UK Caroline Daniel Symbian, the consortium that licenses an operating system for next generation wireless devices, has ruled out a flotation this year and admitted it would need its software to be installed in tens of millions of handsets to break even. Thomas Chambers, finance director, said: "Our ambition is still to go for an IPO at some point. If not, what am I doing here? I joined to do an IPO. But it won't be this year." Mr Chambers, a former investment banker, was last week appointed interim joint chief operating officer, following the resignation of Colly Myers, chief executive. The UK company, owned by a group that includes Psion, Nokia and Ericsson, is at the centre of the battle to become the dominant provider of software for mobile devices. Symbian has struggled to define its competitive position and created battles with shareholders by developing the main wireless operating platform - EPOC - as well as the initial displays on wireless devices that are known as user interfaces. Critics argued the interfaces developed by Symbian - Quartz and Pearl - put the company in competition with manufacturers such as Nokia. Mr Chambers said: "It was confusing what it did. It did Pearl and Quartz and EPOC. What it shouldn't be doing is competing with Nokia. We want to be non-contentious between licencees." Now Symbian plans to focus on improving the basic operating system, an area where it faces competition from Microsoft. But wireless manufacturers have been reluctant to back Microsoft so far. "What the industry does not want is the Microsoft route of becoming a component manufacturer to their operating system," said Mr Chambers. A second concern is that Symbian has conflicting interests from shareholders. While vendors such as Nokia have an interest in cutting the price of the operating system in each phone, Symbian needs to retain a tough stance to make profits. Symbian said it charged a Dollars 5 royalty fee per operating system in each handset. So far, Symbian has only been installed in a few products, typically expensive smartphones, targeted at a niche audience. Mr Chambers acknowledged: "Symbian will have to be in the tens of millions instead of the millions of handsets to break even. It won't be this year." Symbian is hoping that as mass-market phones become more sophisticated, and handle more data, they will need to install its complex software to cope with these new demands. Symbian employs about 670 people, with annual costs of about Pounds 60m. It generates money, and gross profit, from charging out its technical consultants and gets income from training. It had cash of about Pounds 17m at the end of last year, and raised a further Pounds 21m in February from existing shareholders. "Will we have to do more funding?" Mr Chambers asked. "I don't know." That question will be determined by the speed at which licencees announce products. Unfortunately that timing is beyond Symbian's control. << - Eric -

To: elmatador who wrote (2045)	2/27/2002 1:32:40 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9255

re: TIM & M-Services TIM seems to still be a holdout from the OMAI * TIM launched GPRS last year and now has around 600,000 users, about half from the consumer market. * TIM offers M-Services handsets from Motorola, Siemens, Alcatel, Ericsson, Samsung and Telital. * The first Nokia M-Service-enabled GPRS phone is currently in prototype. >> TIM Hopes To Recreate Docomo Model With M-Services Emily Bourne Total Telecom Cannes 21 February 2002 TIM, the mobile arm of Italian incumbent Telecom Italia, said at the 3GSM Congress in Cannes Thursday it has sold 1.2 million M-Services handsets. The company announced its second service, WAP Push. The company hopes to take a proactive role in selecting and marketing applications, along similar lines to DoCoMo in Japan. “The manufacturers are unable to produce suitable standards because they compete too much with each other,” Mauro Sentinelli, managing director of TIM, told Total Telecom. “The operators have to commit them selves in participating in working groups within the GSM Association.” Sentinelli initially tried to short-cut the company's way to the front of the mobile data race by importing DoCoMo's successful i-mode standard into Italy, inserting a GPRS transceiver into a PDC handset. However, the attempt failed, because “GPRS is much more complex than PDC.” So TIM moved from the technology to the services, compiling a list of the most successful applications in Japan and visiting handset vendors in Japan, Korea, Scandinavia, the U.S. and Europe to find out what was possible in time for Christmas 2001 launch. The result of that survey was the first slew of M-Services offerings: enhanced messaging service (EMS), screensaver and WAP push. The screensaver service was the first launch, in November. The target for sales was 700,000 handsets, Sentinelli said, but TIM managed to sell 1.2 million in the November to January period. 23,000 photos were downloaded. Now the company hopes to build on this user base with a push news service designed to simplify WAP use. An estimated 40% of European mobile users receive SMS but don't send their own, preferring not to type, he said. TIM's question was: “How can we gently drive those users to navigate into the Internet world?” Under the WAP Push service (which is being marketed to end-users only as “M-Services”), users receive free SMSs with news headlines, an advert at the top and a hyperlink into a WAP site for the full story. Content is provided by Italian news agency ANSA and entertainment content provider ACOTEL. TIM offers M-Services handsets from Motorola, Siemens, Alcatel, Ericsson, Samsung and Telital. The first Nokia M-Service-enabled GPRS phone is currently in prototype. Sentinelli said it is too early to disclose ARPU figures for M-Services users because they are probably too high at the moment. “These customers are special customers, self-segmented,” he said. When the company reaches 40% penetration of M-Services among its overall 24 million customer base, it will disclose the ARPU increase. TIM launched GPRS last year and now has around 600,000 users, about half from the consumer market. Sentinelli believes it is important to make GPRS work before pushing UMTS. He said TIM has full coverage with its GPRS network, and this is “the single most important component of every mobile service,” followed by the ability to roam. In marketing terms, he added, “the real evolution is between circuit-switched software and packet software,” that is, between GSM and GPRS. However, in investment terms, the quantum leap is going to be from GPRS to UMTS. He believes the key to success is effective marketing. << - Eric -