Mobile working Toolkit

Motorola's Symbian phone could give 3G a lift

Graeme Wearden ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 29 Aug 2003 14:25 BST

The first Motorola handset to run on the Symbian operating system could give a much-needed boost to Britain's budding 3G market.

The mobile phone manufacturer announced the launch of the A920 handset on Thursday. It will be available in the UK only through Hutchison's 3 service.

The A920, which runs on Symbian OS 7.0, lets users conduct video calls, download video clips and access the Web via a 3G network. It also contains PDA functionality, with a touch-sensitive 65K colour screen that's large enough to show 20 lines of readable text. According to Symbian, the device also offers handwriting recognition.

It can also be operated as an MP3 player, and supports several Java games.

Click here to see an image of the A920.

A built-in global positioning system (GPS) feature will work with 3's location services to direct the user to the nearest shop, restaurant or cinema.

Pricing details were not revealed, but as Hutchison is under pressure to increase its user base the A920 may be generously subsidised. Earlier this month, parent company Hutchison Whampoa revealed that there are 155,000 3 subscribers in the UK, so Hutchison has its work cut out to reach an earlier target of one million users by the end of 2003.