3GSM: Microsoft, PalmSource and Symbian smarts

Mobile OSes again make strides but with low profiles

The major providers of operating systems for smart phones - companies that will have a big say in our future, connected working lives - have reported varying degrees of progress at the 3GSM annual mobile industry snapshot in the south of France this week.

UK-based Symbian has reported strong metrics, not least year-on-year shipments of handsets based on its OS. Microsoft, after what some have called a low-profile 2004, has announced several initiatives. And PalmSource has let it be known its hat remains very much in the smart phone ring with a new version of the Treo on Orange and other releases.

With outgoing CEO David Levin taking more of a backseat than usual at Symbian's annual press event - the company has appointed headhunters Russell Reynolds to find a replacement, said new non-executive chairman Sir Peter Gershon - it was CFO Thomas Chambers who said sales had gone up from 2.76 million shipped Symbian devices in the fourth quarter of 2003 to 5.68 million in Q4 of 2004.Year-on-year the difference was 6.67 million for 2003 versus 14.38 million for last year.

Symbian now has an installed base of around 25 million phones, metrics that show more profitability per employee and a strong pipeline of products from vendors including Nokia and Fujitsu in Japan. This week sees the debut of the Lenovo P930, the Panasonic X800, the Samsung D720 and the Sendo X2 music phone.

The idea is that the company is moving down to more mass market handsets, targeting them with its just-released v9 OS.

IDC estimates that by 2008 130 million smart phones will be selling worldwide, making up 15 per cent of total handset sales.

Looking out for its own share of that market is Microsoft. While Symbian counts several leading brands among its customers, Microsoft has concentrated on original device manufacturers (ODMs) in addition to Motorola and Samsung as licensees.

This week it added leading phone maker Flextronics to its roster of 40 device makers. It will deliver a Windows Mobile platform going by the name of Peabody.

T-Mobile and HTC of Taiwan said they will redouble their mobile Microsoft efforts, looking to 3G models, for example the MDA IV which combines W-CDMA and Wi-Fi chips.

Both software makers had in common one thing: they are happy to stay out of the limelight. Symbian said it has no plans to make its brand well-known to consumers, even happy to sit invisibly behind user interface platforms such as Series 60 from Nokia and UIQ.

Microsoft has been making noticeably less of a play of its logo on devices such as SPVs sold by Orange.

John Starkweather, product manager at Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices division, said: "It's more subdued with the Windows Mobile brand."

In related news, PalmSource, guardian of the Palm OS that is now selling more quickly on smart phones than traditional PDAs, introduced its updated Treo 650 to Europe. It also announced another handset from GSDPA, new applications and software to put the Palm OS on various form factors.

Speaking on a panel, PalmSource CEO David Nagel gave his usual 'bring on the competition' battle cry.

He said: "The idea that monocultures are bad for ecology applies here. But that's not going to happen."

Symbian's results are reported voluntarily as the company remains private.

We will be bringing you more on the smart phone landscape, including a study which Microsoft says shows its OS-based devices are more profitable for operators, later this week.