Symbian and LiMO fight Android 'overhype'

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Mobile Industry & Technology Journalist - freelance

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Symbian and LiMO fight Android 'overhype'

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 27 April, 2009

READ MORE: Symbian

Scarcely a day goes by without news that Android is poised to move into a new device, with a $250 netbook reported to be in final testing in China. Yet the open source operating system is actually available only in a couple of handsets from HTC, and its rivals are getting tired of its "overhype", with the other main open mobile foundations, Symbian and LiMO, both complaining of this to Forbes magazine.

Lee Williams, president of the Symbian Foundation, claims in the article that the system is "more open and democratic" than Android, clearly seeking to counter nerves that Symbian remains dominated by Nokia (in the same way that Android's 'openness' is ringfenced by Google's funds and influence). Williams also said Symbian will have over 100 members by year end, with increased strength in China, Japan and the US, diluting its historic European focus. And of course, Symbian's base technology is mature, at over a decade old, and mobile optimized.

Meanwhile, LiMO was once the main Linux-based initiative for cellphones, but has been overshadowed by Android, especially as its original big hitting founder, Motorola, has seen its star fade and has come out battling for the Google platform. LiMO's main marketing points against Android center on its commercial robustness. "Compared to well-intentioned, but not very successful attempts to get Linux going within mobile, LiMo is super-pragmatic and highly commercial," said executive director Morgan Gillis.

While the arguments that Williams and Gillis make to Forbes are highly credible, the two foundations probably need to address why they fail to attract as much 'hype' as Android, rather than complaining about it. Last week, the fact that T-Mobile had sold a million G1 Android handsets in six months gained far more column inches than the Symbian-based Nokia 5800 XpressMusic selling three million in a shorter period (November to April).

Most of Android's coverage still centers on products that are not here yet, such as the much vaunted netbooks. Various big names like Acer have tested the operating system on netbook platforms, but the first actual product looks set to come from Guangzhou Skytone, a 50-person design company in south China, according to Computerworld. The Alpha 680 will cost about $250, Skytone co-founder Nixon Wu told reporters, and final prototypes will be ready in June, with manufacturers shipping models in the summer.

Wu said he has received 300 enquiries from different countries about the low cost PC, which will run on an ARM11-based processor. Prototypes, seen at a recent trade show in Hong Kong, weigh 1.5 pounds and measure 8.5x6x1.2 inches, and have a 7-inch screen, 128Mb of DRAM expandable to 256Mb, a 1Gb solid state drive, and further storage via SD cards. The bare bones specifications enable the low price, and this could go under $200 next year, but the netbook does not have any pre-installed applications, and its battery life is only 2-4 hours rather than the 12 hours most netbooks promise.