LONDON-Operating system consortium Symbian signed a development agreement with Japan’s leading mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc. The agreement gives NTT DoCoMo access to Symbian OS source code and the right to deliver extended versions of this code to phone manufacturers that license the Symbian OS.
Through the nonexclusive agreement, NTT DoCoMo will put together a user interface with all the technologies it wants on its next-generation handsets, which will include the Symbian OS. DoCoMo then will distribute that interface to handset manufacturers that make phones for DoCoMo’s FOMA network, said Peter Bancroft, Symbian spokesman.
Symbian added that the agreement will reduce phone development costs for FOMA handset vendors and shorten time to market.
Bancroft said the first phones using the new specifications won’t hit the market until 2005. Therefore, the financial benefits to Symbian, which directly competes with Microsoft Corp. in the mobile-phone OS arena, won’t be fully realized for several years, although they could be substantial. Symbian receives royalties from handset makers that license its software, and the number of Symbian licensees could increase if DoCoMo asks all its handset suppliers to use the Symbian OS.
Currently, Fujitsu’s FOMA handsets use the Symbian platform, but phones from Panasonic and NEC do not, Bancroft said.
The deal is the first of its kind between Symbian and an operator. However, DoCoMo is much more involved in handset development than other operators, so a similar deal with another operator is unlikely. “It will be difficult to match and replicate this relationship with other operators,” said Bancroft. “But we’re always open to work closely with network operators.”
Symbian is owned by several large handset makers, including Nokia Corp., Samsung Inc., Siemens AG, Panasonic and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Motorola Inc. is selling its stake in Symbian to Nokia.
