Symbian gains approval from the European Commission

Symbian receives industry wide acceptance as European Commission approves new joint venture

LONDON, United Kingdom - August 12, 1998 - The European Commission has approved the formation of Symbian after reviewing the company’s structure, activities and ownership. In making its decision the Commission received submissions from other major international companies in the wireless information device industry.

Launched in June 1998 as a joint venture between some of the industry’s major players, Symbian aims to promote standards for mobile wireless operating systems and to enable a mass market for wireless information devices. Following normal procedure, extensive documentation was presented by Symbian to the Commission to seek authorization of the venture.

Symbian
Welcoming the decision, Colly Myers, CEO of Symbian, said, “The acceptance of the Symbian venture is an endorsement of our partnerships within the wireless information device industry. We’ve set up a transparent business model that aims to ensure a level playing field within the industry - promoting open standards, enabling innovation and competition, and ultimately enabling consumer and corporate users of smartphones and communicators.”

Inheriting the major assets of Psion Software PLC, Symbian’s main activities are to license, develop and support EPOC - a robust, reliable real time operating system. A proven, mature solution, EPOC is optimized for smartphones and communicators, allowing licensees to design their own user interfaces and select and add relevant applications. This will allow the development of a wide range of compatible devices with different designs and functionality.

The Yankee Group
Justine Heys, Principal Analyst at The Yankee Group, says, “The formation of Symbian is an excellent example of how competitors in the product space can work with each other in the technology space to enable the industry. Having clearly demonstrated that it is promoting open standards for wireless information devices, Symbian is set, with its partners, to play a key role in developing smartphones and communicators that provide optimized functionality and ease of use for end-users.”

Symbian will now concentrate on expanding open partnerships within the industry. Intensifying the rapid development and support for EPOC and promotion of wireless information devices, Symbian is currently expanding its operations in London, USA and Japan and is looking to double its headcount by the end of 1999.

About Symbian

Symbian licenses, develops and supports the EPOC operating system - providing leading software, user interfaces, application frameworks and development tools for wireless information devices such as communicators and smartphones. With headquarters in London, and offices in Kanazawa, Japan and the San Francisco Bay Area, USA, Symbian aims to promote standards for the interoperation of wireless information devices with wireless networks, content services, messaging and enterprise wide solutions. Symbian is owned by Ericsson, Nokia and Psion, with Motorola having signed a Memorandum of Understanding to join.

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Symbian and the EPOC logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symbian Ltd. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.