In a display of commitment to Symbian's operating system for mobile
phones, three major handset makers have increased their investment
in the company.
Symbian is to receive a total of £20.75m of funding from Nokia,
Motorola, Matsushita (Panasonic), Sony Ericsson, and Psion,
according to a Symbian statement.
Sony Ericsson sees the Symbian OS as a "key enabler" for its GPRS
and 3G phones, according to the Symbian statement. Ericsson, a
founding shareholder in Symbian, transferred its right to make
future investments in the company to Sony Ericsson when the company
was formed in October 2001.
Symbian's operating system competes with Microsoft's smart-phone
platform, and is used in Psion handheld computers as well as smart
phones from Ericsson and Nokia. Panasonic and Motorola are planning
to introduce phones with the software and Nokia has stated that at
least half of its 3G phones in 2004 will be based on Symbian.
Symbian was founded in 1998 and is jointly owned by Sony Ericsson,
Ericsson, Nokia, Matsushita, Motorola and Psion.