Apple and Research In Motion are the key drivers of the mobile industry in North America. Nokia still dominates globally, but hasn’t been able to grab significant market share in the United States or Canada. But with AT&T’s director of next-generation services Roger Smith revealing at a Symbian Partner Event in San Francisco yesterday that the company may consolidate its mobile platform offerings that could change.
AT&T, a big supporter of Java, agrees it hasn’t been a success and may look to Symbian as the operating system of choice for its mobile phones. If so, it could be a huge opportunity for the Symbian operating system to catch on in North America. Nokia, which just recently completed acquiring Symbian, uses the operating system on its mobile phones and would gain impressive exposure if AT&T should make the change. The Symbian OS is expected to be released in an open-source version in 2010 from the managing Symbian Foundation of which AT&T is a co-founder.
It’s possible that this could dramatically change the mobile landscape in North America. But it’ll be a tough sell to consumers. Apple’s iPhone has captured the imaginations of millions and Blackberry offers a different but just as functional brand–with, according to some, the exception of the Blackberry Storm. Next year we’re likely to see quite a bit of movement from Android as well. Motorola has recently hinted at its plans to consolidate to an Android-based mobile platform.
The Symbian Foundation knows all of this and plans to spend the next year improving consumer awareness of the Symbian OS and its capabilities in the western hemisphere. And of course key to this plan will be increasing awareness among developers. With Apple’s revolutionary app store concept, a mobile handset’s success largely depends on the types of applications that can be developed for it. This is the main reason for mobile OS consolidation across the carriers right now–they’re making it easier for developers to create applications for a multitude of phones by eliminating the fragmentation that has made it difficult thus far.
Symbian says that it will solely use the popular S60 interface making it easier for developers to code applications once and have them run across all Symbian handsets. Plus, the Foundation says its “app mall” method of distribution will be more favorable to developers than Apple’s, Android’s, or Blackberry’s. Rather than take a cut of revenues from app sales, 100 percent will go to developers.
While the plan sounds pretty good for getting to developers’ hearts, it’ll still be tough to convince North Americans to choose a Nokia phone. I don’t know anyone with a Nokia phone, and it’s unlikely targeting anyone I know with the advantages of an operating system would be well received. Whether or not Symbian succeeds in North America, it’s gearing up to be a global battle between it, Android, and the Linux-based operating system from the Limo Foundation. And guaranteed it’ll change the mobile landscape for carriers, developers and end users alike–hopefully in a good way.
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