Symbian Teams with Microsoft for Mobile E-Mail

by Alex Woodie

Smart phone operating system maker Symbian and Microsoft announced a deal yesterday whereby Microsoft will license to Symbian a version of its Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol, which will enable Symbian customers to synchronize their mobile phones with e-mails and calendar and contact information from their Outlook desktops. The deal brings Symbian, which is co-owned by the major cell phone makers, into closer cooperation with Microsoft, which has cell-phone OS aims of its own.

Under the terms of the agreement unveiled yesterday, Symbian will develop an Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol "plug-in" for its Symbian OS messaging architecture that enables Symbian OS licensees to include over-the-air (OTA) synchronization capabilities for e-mail, calendar, contacts, and other personal information management (PIM) data supported by Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The plug-in for the Exchange ActiveSync protocol would provide just one more way Symbian customers can access e-mail and other information from their desktop. Symbian currently supports Research in Motion's Blackberry Connect standard, as well as the Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization protocol. Nokia had previously signed its own deal with Microsoft to bring an ActiveSync plug-in to its smart phones.

U.K.-based Symbian is one of the most successful smart-phone companies. The company, which is co-owned by Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic , Psion, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and Siemens, claims that more than 14 million Symbian OS-powered smart phones were shipped from its network of 200 phone manufactures last year, and says it has a current installed base of 25 million Symbian OS phones. The organization was founded in 1998, as Psion Software, and its Symbian OS was originally called EPOC.

The handheld computer and smart phone market is one area of IT experiencing solid growth these days. There is growing interest among corporations to give employees access to server-based data and applications via mobile devices. E-mail, as the original "killer app," is just the start of what is expected to be an onslaught of mobility solutions in the coming years.

What mobile operating system this next generation of mobile apps for 3G broadband networks will look like, however, is anything but settled. While Symbian is a dominant force in this arena and has a mature and respected OS, smart phone makers may look to the more lenient licensing terms of Linux to power their next-generation smart phone operating systems.