Symbian to target mass market phones

Symbian shareholders have moved to keep the mobile operating platform neutral after investing an additional £50m in the firm.

Further funding will help Symbian extend its leadership in the smartphone sector and move it into the mid-range mobile handset market, creating an additional 300 jobs for developers and support staff.

Panasonic, Siemens and Sony Ericsson have also agreed to join Nokia in the pre-emption process for the purchase of Psion's Symbian equity stake, meaning that Nokia will only achieve a share of 47.9 per cent in Symbian rather than the 63 per cent controlling share originally predicted.

David Levin, chief executive of Symbian, said that the extra cash would help it gain a greater share of the mobile device operating system market, where it competes with Microsoft and PalmSource.

"The driver is the cost of the phones that can be built using Symbian OS and we're looking to win in the mass market," said Levin.

Jens-Thomas Pietralla, chief marketing officer at Siemens Mobile, added that Symbian's plans to target the mass market would also help shape the way consumers and business users interact with devices.

"Smartphones are very likely to become the second biggest converged device after the PC," said Pietralla.

"They are a 24/7 device that people carry around all the time."

Jessica Figueras, wireless software research director at analyst Ovum, said that further investment from the mobile manufacturers showed their commitment to the operating platform as well as their reluctance to see Nokia take control.

"The enterprise market has been one that Symbian has been talking about increasingly over the past few months," she said.

"This additional investment will give them the much needed support to tackle this market."