Symbian could be ready for its big US break

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Symbian could be ready for its big US break

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 8 December, 2008

READ MORE: Symbian | US

The Symbian operating system, whose takeover by Nokia was finalized last week, dominates the smartphone landscape, but to maintain its lead over Android, Apple and the others, it needs to raise its profile in the US. Now it may be close to the breakthrough it requires, with AT&T hinting that it may make Symbian its operating system of choice from next year, as the Nokia-controlled OS moves into open source, and AT&T looks to streamline its efforts around a single smartphone platform.

Roger Smith, director of next generation services at AT&T, said at the recent Symbian Partner Event that the operator was looking for "dramatic consolidation in terms of the mobile platforms and tool chains that we support". He added: "We want to standardize our platforms on a platform like Symbian that is mature and effective." This strategy would apply to AT&T's own-branded smartphones - which it hopes, for cost and control reasons, will take a major role in its midrange smartphone portfolio - rather than third party branded devices like the iPhone. But a Symbian roadmap would presumably be advantageous to third party products too, and could even see Nokia finally getting an own-branded smartphone onto AT&T's 3G network, as well as stepping up its efforts to work with the operator to create co-branded handsets for customers who do not require the fullblown superphone experience.

Such a move could significantly shift the smartphone OS balance of power, which in recent months has looked like working against Symbian, in the US at least. Symbian's main backers, Nokia and Sony Ericsson, have limited presence in the country, though both have been making minor inroads into AT&T lately. With AT&T a member of the Open Handset Alliance - which backs Symbian's probable main rival, Google Android - and both Sony Ericsson and Motorola initiating Android-based strategies, Symbian seemed in danger of being sidelined. And of course, AT&T's devotion to its iPhone exclusive has always worked against any major commitment to another smartphone platform.

Several factors are changing for AT&T though. It is possible that it will lose its iPhone exclusive as early as a year from now, and anyway, the Apple handset is being pushed into the midrange of the cellphone spectrum, leaving a vacancy for some high end models (AT&T has already put considerable effort into its RIM Bold 3G launch); AT&T's HSPA network is now achieving the performance, tuning and coverage to be able to take advantage of the highest end superphones, and consumers will start to demand a far wider choice of handsets for 3G, and access to some of the high profile devices, like Nokia N97, that they see being launched in Europe; and with Verizon Wireless merging with Alltel to become the US' largest mobile operator, AT&T needs to step up its efforts to differentiate itself through advanced mobile broadband services and handsets.

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