Its not often that you can honestly say that Microsoft and Linux have a common foe, but in this case they do in onse sense. Both Linux and Microsoft are being touted as alternatives to Symbian. This Yahoo article talks about Microsft and its entry to the market, while this news.com article discusses Linux.

If you can read through the spin on both these stories it makes an interesting read. While Symbian does have challengers they aren't at the moment very credible. While I fully expect them to take market share I think we can expect Symbian to have an overwhelming lead that may never be broken.

Linux is touted as strong because its Open Source and while that is a fair point Symbian allows unprecedented access to source code for liscensee and development partners. This is what they want, they dont need genuine open source they get the access they need. Indeed many companies will view this as better feeling that it enhances security and protects their IP. The people most concerned with saving money by using Open Source would be the manufacturers but since they are part owners of Symbian any real value gain is lost. Linux will be doomed to fill a very small part of the market much as it has on PDA's. They are not a credible threat.

Microsoft because of thier sheer size and financial power does pose more of a threat but their biggest problem will be being accepted by the manufacturers. Even using OEM producers wont really work in the brand and style conscious mobile phone sector. If Microsoft are to mount a challenge they need to improve their software, and this probably means an entire rewrite designing for a wireless base, not downgrading existing programming. Symbian OS strength is it was desinged with mobile devices paramount. Smartphone 2002 is always going to be dragging along the chains of it parenthood. Symbian OS is a ready now OS is memory and power efficient and is widely recognised as several levels above everything else. The trend of the OS being hidden may seem to mean this doesn't matter, but the OS will impact upon the user experience and that is what will make the difference. Consumers will go for the stable, crash free, and resource friendly phone.

Symbian also has the advantage on a coherent strategy and roadmap. While last year saw some confusion Symbian looks set to have handsets powered by its OS in all price categories. Microsoft will remain a high end system. The low end is where the numbers are in quantity terms and with a fixed cost per liscense Symbian is in a very strong position. Symbian multiple cetagory / price approach can cause some trouble with development, but this is laregly being negated by development tools being cross platform or the use of cross platform languages such as J2ME.

Symbian isn't perfect and it does have some point against. First of these in my opinion is lack of control over the end device. This problem is seen in the low memory specifications for all the existing phones. This happens because Symbian gives the manufacturers flexibility (something which the manufacturers like), but results in devices that are not as strong as they could be, thus giving the OS a bad name. That the 7650 and 9210 have done so well despite being equipped with 4MB of memory (internally) is a credit to the Symbian OS and its low resource use (can you imagine a similar Microsft of even plam device doing so well with this little memory?).

Symbian are also handicapped by being a relatively small company, meaning that they can only do so much at once. It also means that they do not have the finanical muscle of the oposition. Again it is a credit to Symbian that they have produced the leading and technically most brilliant OS from the lowest resource base. You might think with the support of so many mobile phone manufacturers that they would have lots of cash, but things dont work like that!

So 2003 is the year of the wirerless OS wars? Expect Palm to mount a challenge, Micorsoft to get serious and Linux to have a go. But expect Symbian to win, and enjoy it! It is not every day you see David win these days!