It emerged at the CEBIT show in Germany that Symbian had replaced Colly Myers, who left in February, with Psion CEO David Levin.
Despite being an early entrant into the mobile Internet market, only a handful of smartphones use the Symbian operating system Epoc. These include the Communicator series from Nokia and Ericsson's R380 smartphone, but sales volumes are low.
Symbian, which led the field two years ago, now faces stiff competition from the Palm operating system and Microsoft's Pocket PC and Stinger alternatives.
The consortium has not been able to deliver products on time. Two years ago at CEBIT it promised a tablet device equipped with voice capability produced in partnership with Motorola, but this failed to materialise.
Symbian at least has some powerful shareholders in the form of Nokia, Ericsson, Panasonic, Sony and Psion.
