Symbian unveils platform for 2.5G smartphones and communicators at CeBIT 2001

Symbian and partners demonstrate capabilities of Symbian platform v6.1 designed to drive demand for next generation mobile phones

CeBIT, Hannover (March 21, 2001) - Symbian today publicly unveiled its market leading release of a fully integrated operating system platform for GPRS-enabled smartphones and communicators. The new platform also incorporates support for WAP 1.2, and advanced Bluetooth, providing all the building blocks necessary to create services and applications for wireless devices running on GPRS enabled networks. The Symbian platform v6.1 is currently undergoing integration testing with licensees, and products based on this release are scheduled to ship from H2, 2001.

"The always-on nature of 2.5G networks presents the wireless industry with a great opportunity to develop mobile data services that add value to today's voice only mobile phones," said Colly Myers, CEO, Symbian. "With its market leading position, it is clear that device manufacturers now see the Symbian platform v6.1 as the de facto standard which provides all the functionality and integrated features needed for next generation mobile phones. Symbian is now looking to drive demand by working more closely with wireless network operators, content and service providers who can provide additional valuable services for users of Symbian based devices."

The Symbian 2.5G platform is further proof of the Symbian's commitment to promote open standards in wireless communications, offering a robust, reliable platform for devices that attract third-party applications, content and services. Symbian's Java implementation runs within the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) framework and includes all mandatory and most optional features defined in the PersonalJava Application Environment 1.1 specification.

At CeBIT in Hall 26, Symbian is demonstrating, with a wide range of partners, compelling solutions for licensees, network operators and end-users including connectivity and synchronization demos, wireless gaming, hardware platforms and application suites. Symbian is also for the first time demonstrating its own reference design for smartphones, complementing the many user interface designs that are already in development by licensees for smartphones to address the mass consumer market of next generation mobile phones.

About Symbian
Symbian owns, develops and licenses a software platform for next generation mobile phones. Owned by Ericsson, Matsushita (Panasonic), Motorola, Nokia and Psion, Symbian's mission is to license the Symbian platform to all mobile phone manufacturers and to create a mass market for next generation mobile phones by working closely with wireless networks, content, messaging and enterprise wide solution providers.