The Hindu Business Line : Symbian shifts focus to mass market devices

Currently, Symbian OS holds 80-85 per cent of the global market share in the smart phones category. The changes the OS needs to undergo to enable this makeover have begun.

The Vice-President - Marketing of Symbian Software, Mr Simon Garth told Business Line, "While smart phone users are more tech-savvy, users of mass market products do not expect to be able to change the configuration. The effort is on to make the phone appear more simple in the hands of the customer."

Version 9 of the OS has an in-built security feature. Applications in this version are limited to elementary functions. To access sensitive functions, the applications need a digital signature of user.

Talking about their entry into the Indian market, Mr Keith Porteous, General Manager, Symbian Software India Pvt Ltd, said, "We have an outsourcing arrangement with Kshema since July 2003. We grew to 80 people. On July 4, 2005 we opened a subsidiary here in Bangalore." As part of the arrangement, some employeeswere transferred from Kshema to Symbian India. Now, half of a 150-strong team staffed at MphasiS work on Voice over Internet Protocol and other multimedia protocols for Symbian.

Symbian currently employs 1,200 software engineers worldwide. The company intends to recruit another 50 by next year.

Symbian's principal focus in India is to develop their partner community. Partners include Sasken, Wipro, Satyam and Texas Instruments. The company said they were in talks with Indian games and applications companies too.

Said Mr Garth, "We expect that games, video and other services will hit the local markets with an Indian flavour. This will be a challenge. Companies can use Symbian's platform technology to create applications specific to India."

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