Mobiles smarten up to improve sales

Mobile phones with advanced PDA functionality will become more common by the end of summer as phone makers move away from proprietary software, says Symbian.

Symbian spokesman Paul Cockerton said that manufacturers had woken up to the fact that the flagging consumer market will only remain interested in mobiles if they are packed with devices like cameras, media players and colour screens.

"At the moment, most phone makers have their own proprietary software running on their handsets, which makes it difficult for mobile network operators to sell services to all their customers at once," Cockerton said.

However, there has been an upturn in the number of manufacturers adopting Symbian technology, which is shared with handset makers and software developers, making it much easier to create services that could reach large numbers of consumers.

Cockerton said that there were 10 Symbian projects under way at various phone makers and by 2004 at least half of mobiles will use it.

Many Symbian smartphones will be released this year, including Nokia's 7650 handset which will come with a digital camera onboard that can take and send pictures to other phones, he said.

Ericsson is also expected to unveil its P800 smartphone, which has a large colour touchscreen as well as a camera.

Analysts also indicate that smartphones could be the saviour of the flagging mobile industry.

Senior analyst Peter Sanderson, of Silicon Valley based analysis company DataWatch, said that price had been a major reason why PDA-based phones had never really caught on.

However, the indications are it is set to change with Nokia allowing customers to pre-order its 7650 camera-phone for only about £190.

Sanderson added that when phones become more intelligent, then it will be the death of the PDA market, as mobile phone companies can provide more for less cost.