PalmSource has Hot Sync and Palm Desktop. Microsoft has Active Sync and Microsoft Outlook. Symbian has… a reputation for not being reliable with your data when synchronising. Yes, moving data around from your PC to your PDA/Smartphone is one of those areas where Symbian has a major problem. It may be a connected and online device, but does anyone truly trust a Symbian device to sync to his or her PC in the same way that the other major Operating Systems do? Ewan takes a closer look.

One of the advantages in Palm and Microsoft’s strategy is they have their own desktop PIM Suite, which they both know inside and out (by virtue of coding every line of the application). With this knowledge they can make a rock solid synchronising engine that works on their own platform perfectly. Symbian, in its various UI disguises, ties itself to MS-Outlook as the PIM of ‘choice,’ and because of this, relies on the available public knowledge and API’s. There’s no way that they will know as much about how Outlook works as the programmers in Redmond do.

Synchronising shouldn’t be difficult, but Symbian have gone out their way to make it appear that it is some mythical holy grail. Information is power, and given the choice, Symbian would not be on my list of machines to choose that would sync to my PIM suite.

Palm OS and its dedicated Desktop Environment (Palm Desktop and Hot Sync) is one of the strongest selling points. It’s something that’s genuinely useful, easy to understand, and reliable. It’s one button-press, with no complicated linking software, dodgy connections or lengthy waiting. Probably ninety percent of Palm OS users will realise that this is enough and never leave that Environment even when it comes to upgrading their smartphone.

Active Sync goes one step further – you don’t even press a button. Once your Pocket PC or Windows Smartphone is connected to your PC, then the synchronising happens automatically in the background. Make one change in Outlook (or on the device) and it is copied over at that very instant. So all you need to do is grab the machine and leave your desk, confident the last diary changes have been moved over.

We all know how much fun Symbian is.

It’s high time that Symbian sat down and wrote their own PIM Suite, so they can get on at least level terms in an area they are weak in. It doesn’t need to be a huge, all singing, all dancing client. A simple Agenda, Contacts, Notes and Tasks Suite would suffice. But it needs to be Symbian. Not Nokia, not Sony Ericsson, not Sendo… not any of the partners. This is such a fundamental area that Symbian need to show some leadership by drawing a line in the sand that says “sync problems are our responsibility, and they will be fixed.” It needs to be compatible across the range of machines (after all, many of these core apps use the same file format on each device). Locking people into friendly software means that on upgrading their phone, they’re thinking stick with Symbian, which is a good thing. The more phones sold, the better for Symbian and the partners.

The whole point of Symbian as a company is for the partners to work together on areas, not let Nokia write a custom Series 60 solution that’s not transportable just because they sell the most phones.

Obviously there are a huge number of steps Symbian can take to make this attractive. Making the application skin-able by separating the engine code and the UI layer is something the Operating System itself already does. This means Nokia and SE still get their own branded PIM Suite, but the marketplace is reassured that it works. Symbian already provide a basic connectivity engine to partners, so the framework in the organisation is there. And if they want to make a huge leap, then write the PIM application in Java. Not only does that mean that you have PC connectivity, but Mac and Linux will be able to join in officially as well – neither Palm nor Microsoft officially supports syncing to platforms other than Windows.

This year, Symbian need to decide if they are a company behind a thriving Operating System (and all that entails) or if they’re just a kernel company supporting some handset manufacturers. There’s a world of difference in the two approaches. The Operating System line would cover taking responsibility for problems (and perceived problems). If they’re going to leave their Partners to sort it out, then they’re no more than a kernel producer. If Symbian can get a hold of the reins of this (and a few other areas), show some leadership, then everyone wins. Phone manufacturers will want Symbian more because of the off-the-shelf solution they’ll be providing" Technical Power Users will dive into the PIM Suite API’s and start improving them (here’s a thought – make the PIM Suite Open Source…). And End-Users will start to use the synching capability and realise they’ve got a pretty good computer on their phone that does more than make calls and take pictures. And if end-users want a specific phone, with a hassle free software solution, then watch the Operators take notice and make sure these phones (which naturally generate higher ARPU) are the ones that are marketed.

Probably Symbian’s biggest missed opportunity in all of this was back in 1994. Psion (whose software division would become Symbian in five years time) were looking for a connectivity and syncing solution. They had a choice of two options. One was to write their own client, the other was to commission a US company to re-jig their popular connectivity solution from the Casio Zoomer PDA to the Psion Series 3a. In the end, they decided to write their own. The US Company was left with no market for their PDA software, so in a final roll of the dice, they decided to build their own PDA to run with the software. In 1995 that company, called Palm Computing, launched the first Palm Pilot.

You reap what you sow…