Speaking at the opening of the Smartphone Show in London, David Wood, executive vice president for research at Symbian, has told vnunet.com that the threat from mobile viruses is "overstated".

Wood pointed out that proof-of-concept viruses rely on users actively letting in the code, and claimed that there are no back doors in Symbian's code which virus writers could exploit.

"There will be serious threats ahead but, provided we act early enough, we can keep control of the problem," he told vnunet.com.

"We've been working with industry colleagues for more than three years on this, and that's why we're not breaking out in a sweat. But it is a serious issue, and we're not taking it lightly."

Other figures within the industry have expressed concern that the effect of mobile viruses could be more damaging for network operators than for end users.

This is a particular problem now that the UK market has matured, and network operators need to focus on retaining customers rather than recruiting new ones.

"The loss of goodwill and customer dissatisfaction will lead to an increased customer churn," said Laurent Gondicart, director of business development at Trend Micro.

"There is also the loss of billable minutes from devices following a virus infection. Add to that the cost of customer service calls, and the possibility of lost revenues if the network goes down even for a few hours, and you are looking at a major problem."

Gondicart explained that, while individual users should protect their handsets as they would their PCs, network operators must install protection at the gateway to stop these problems before they start.

Such protection, he believes, would also be a potent selling point for customers.