AOL services to run on Symbian smartphones
Published: 25 Apr 2003 08:25 BST
AOL and Symbian, a developer of advanced mobile phone operating systems, have announced a deal to bring AOL services to more mobile phone subscribers.
As part of the agreement, announced on Thursday, AOL engineers will create a one-size-fits-all version of AOL services that can be embedded into any Symbian phone. Handset makers that back the Symbian operating system, such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson, can build phones with AOL features more quickly if the development work already has been done, Symbian spokesman Peter Bancroft said.
AOL Time Warner's online division is already at work on Symbian versions of its popular instant message programs AOL Messenger and ICQ. But the Web provider also intends to make "a broad range of media and entertainment content" available to Symbian licensees in the future, according to Bill Schwebel, vice president of AOL Mobile.
The deal is a sign of the intensifying competition between makers and designers of smartphones, which blend a mobile phone and personal digital assistant into one device and come with capabilities such as playing streaming video or sending wireless emails with attached sound recordings. With a flood of smart phones expected to hit the major markets this year, wireless carriers and other industry players are looking for content to lure new customers.
The first new services likely will involve instant messaging -- the "training wheels" feature every wireless carrier uses to give subscribers a palatable taste of data-oriented phone services. AOL's Instant Messenger is the second of the major IM services to make the jump from mobile phones to smartphones. Microsoft's MSN Messenger is offered as part of its Smartphone 2002 operating system, used to power handsets sold by several US and European carriers.
The deal underscores AOL's attempt to extend its instant messaging dominance to the wireless world. The company boasts the largest instant messaging population due to its ownership of both ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger.
The Symbian OS, PalmSource's Palm OS and Microsoft's Windows for Smartphones 2002 are the top three smart phone operating systems currently in use. Symbian dominates the market, and analysts expect it to keep its No. 1 position at least through 2007.
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