In an annoucnement which clearly shows Motorola's conintuing interest and support for Symbian OS, Symbian and Motorola Semiconductor have announced 2.5G and 3G reference diseigns based on Motorola's i.250 and i.300 Innovative Convergence wireless platforms. The reference designs, presumably available to other manufactuers, cut development time by 50%. Read full story for comment.

This announcement is clearly an important one, it is the second reference dsign type announcement in two days (the first being Samsungs and Infineon yesterday). More importantly this puts Motorola's feet somewhat back into the Symbian camp (a recent announcement about Linux had led many to speculate that Motorola was losing interest in Symbian). While Motorola have made a Linux/Java play at Cannes, this annoucnement shows it still has interest n Symbian (yeah we're confused too). Motorola remaining interested has important implications for the the US market since Motorola is strong here.

The situation now seems to be that Symbian have Europe sorted with Nokia and Sony Ericsson Phones (and Siemens shortly one expcets), Asia is looking strong for the future thanks to Samgsung (and other Asian companies) [bearing in mind Nokia has already established a consierbale slice of the market their - looks at ther ecent EMEA figures]. With this announcement Symbian may be making serious in roads into the US market (although again the P800 and 3650 looks set to do this as well).

One imagines than Symbian competitors are feeling a little put out by now. Symbian suddenly looks even scarier than before, going from a situation where about half of the top mobile manufacturers had strong links (devices or reference desings) to a situation where almost all of the manufactuers do!

Hey Symbian we're proud of you! Keep up the good work.

Press Release:
Motorola Semiconductor and Symbian launch 2.5G and 3G reference designs
Development time for handsets featuring Symbian OS reduced by up to 50 percent
CANNES, France – February 18, 2003 – Motorola, Inc.’s (NYSE:MOT) Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) and Symbian Ltd. today introduce 2.5G and 3G handset reference designs which reduce by as much as 50 percent the development time needed to create innovative handsets running the Symbian OS™ operating system. Symbian OS is the open global standard operating system for advanced mobile phones and is licensed by the world’s leading handset manufacturers, accounting for more than 80 percent of worldwide mobile phone sales.

The reference designs provide handset manufacturers with an integrated, off-the-shelf package of Motorola’s platform design, tools and Symbian OS. The result is that the designs may enable handset manufacturers to accelerate the development time for Symbian OS-enabled mobile phones – as well as applications that take advantage of the latest integrated voice and data capabilities – by greatly simplifying the integration process.

Based on Motorola’s i.250 and i.300 Innovative Convergence wireless platforms, combined with the Motorola i.MX Media Extension applications processors, the 2.5G and 3G reference designs feature low part counts and advanced development tools that will enable the development and manufacturing of smaller, portable, low-cost and power efficient mobile phones. In addition to the benefits offered by the i.250 platform – voice and data functionality, open-standards, and multimedia capabilities – the i.300 platform offers OEMs and ODMs advanced voice, data, imaging and video, optimized product cost, size and yield, and greater design flexibility.

“Motorola’s Innovative Convergence family presents one of the most advanced wireless platform portfolios on the market today. Manufacturers taking advantage of Symbian OS can design and build high-performance and cost-effective advanced Symbian OS phones in a significantly reduced timeframe,” said David Wood, EVP, Partnering, Symbian.

Motorola’s Innovative Convergence portfolio includes high performance, power-efficient chipsets and a suite of development tools, reference designs, and support packages that offer advanced multimedia capabilities optimized for building cost-effective wireless products. Symbian OS is an advanced, open-standard operating system specifically tailored to meet manufacturers’ requirements for rich functionality in their products. Together, Motorola and Symbian are designed to deliver a powerful solution that incorporates the best of handheld computing technology with voice communication, Internet access and computing functionality.

“The wireless industry is in the midst of a significant shift from simple voice-only phones to data-enabled smartphones that offer access to information from a variety of sources,” said Pete Shinyeda, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's Wireless and Broadband Systems Group. “Consumers demand high-performance, low-cost products and wireless device manufacturers want integrated solutions that offer flexibility and reduce time to market. Motorola and Symbian give them the best of both worlds – multimedia capabilities combined with a world-class operating system.”

About the Innovative Convergence Platforms

Motorola offers a portfolio of Innovative Convergence platforms and products to help customers quickly address the converging mobile computing and wireless communications markets. The portfolio includes: the i.200, i.250 and i.300 wireless platforms; the i.MX family of applications processors to drive multimedia applications; industry-leading i.JV J2ME™ reference implementation that provides wireless device designers with the most up-to-date software for quick integration of Java™-based applications; i.IM image capture technology to enable imaging and real-time video; and i.BT Bluetooth solutions engineered to deliver high-quality Bluetooth-enabled applications.

About Symbian

Symbian develops and licenses the global industry standard operating system for advanced mobile phones. The world’s leading mobile phone manufacturers license Symbian OS, including Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. In total, Symbian OS licensees represent over 75% of annual worldwide mobile phone sales.

Symbian's mission is to create a global mass market for Symbian OS mobile phones by enabling its licensees to build winning products. Publicly announced Symbian OS phones include the FOMA F2051, Sony Ericsson P800 Smartphone, Nokia 9210 series, 7650, 3650 and N-Gage. As at January 2003, 9 Symbian licensees had 20 Symbian OS phones in development. For further information about Symbian, please visit www.symbian.com

About Motorola Inc.’s Semiconductor Products Sector

As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector creates DigitalDNA™ system-on-chip solutions for a connected world. Our strong focus on wireless communications and networking enables customers to develop smarter, simpler, safer and synchronized products for the person, work team, home and automobile. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $4.8 billion (USD) in 2002. For more information please visit www.motorola.com/semiconductors

About Motorola

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2002 were $26.7 billion. Motorola is a global corporate citizen dedicated to ethical business practices and pioneering important technologies that make things smarter and life better for people, honored traditions that began when the company was founded 75 years ago this year. For more information, please visit: www.motorola.com