Symbian cuts price, aims for feature phones.
ZDNet reports on Symbian's growth into mid-market handsets. "We want to take our apps and software into what is currently called the feature phone market," Symbian chief executive Nigel Clifford told delegates at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona this year. The argument is that "as mass-market phones develop they will increasingly need a more powerful operating system such as Symbian's".
Symbian claim to have between 60-70% of the smartphone market, having shipped almost 100m units. The company reached profitability in 2005 for the first time, on a revenue of GBP33.6m for the quarter. But things have not gone quite as expected. As David Wood, executive VP of research at Symbian, puts it: "The basic idea of Symbian was that [non-Symbian] built-in operating systems wouldn't be able to scale with more and more technology. That's basically correct. Basic operating systems struggle. But they've managed to stay alive long than we expected, as people found ingenious ways to extend the life of these operating systems, despite the complexity."
The feature phone market makes sense, as smartphone sales and PDA sales become sluggish. According to IDC sales of converged devices rose, but were short of expectations. Andy Brown, analyst with IDC, comments: '"For the majority of end users, feature creep on phones seems to be enough. Although you get much more functionality with a smart phone, they are bigger, and consumers don't seem to want to take advantage of the capabilities," he said, adding that "feature phones are also easier to sell".'
In related news, The Register reports on a price drop for Symbian licensees. "Symbian is clearly expecting the OS to move into the mid-range 'feature phone' market, which accounts for around 200m handsets per year, with its 'single chip'-capable OS, based on a new, real-time kernel.
The Register explains that a single core handset is important for manufacturers as it "allows the OEM to cut the cost of materials considerably, or cram more features on for the same BoM cost, or both". Something Microsoft is 12-18 months away from having: "Windows Mobile kit is now available in abundance, but it isn't exactly cheap. And the price differential set against more technically advanced rivals looks set to punish Microsoft OEMs for some time".
Sources:
- ZDNet: Symbian vows to win mid-market battle.
- The Register: Symbian: smartphone not dead.
- The Register: PDA sales in freefall.
- The Register: Symbian explains price cuts.
- The Register: Microsoft 'year away' from single-core phone OS.
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