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Monday, January 29, 2007
The company enjoys a global market share of around 70 per cent. Its CEO, Nigel Clifford, was in India recently to interact with partners in the country. He spoke to Priya Padmanabhan from CyberMedia News, on the company’s traction in the feature phone market and future plans. Excerpts:
You recently announced Posix support for developers. How would this help Symbian and the developer ecosystem?
We recently announced the availability of libraries support for Posix APIs since we see a couple of benefits. Developers would be able to port their Posix based applications onto Symbian smart phones. It is about opening up to developers and partners and also opening up innovations. It is now a 100 million opportunity now, since Symbian is on 100 million phones globally. Developers who are used to working on standard C programming language can now do that in the market place. We are opening the door to a new opportunity.
You announced your intention to tap the feature phone market in 2005. How is this market shaping up?
The feature phone segment is growing quite well. We have 10 different licensees including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG who are announcing these phones. There are a lot of small, competitively priced phones with specific applications that are coming out. For example, in Japan, NTT DoCoMo launched the Raku raku phone that means a simple phone for the elderly. Elderly people can use the camera on the phone to magnify images.
Another example is the Nokia sports phone, which has features like the calorie counter, MP3 player, exercise software, pedometer and a robust keypad that is water resistant. The end game for handset makers and application developers is to build products that fit in with the individual customer requirements.
Telemedicine and healthcare applications could be of relevance to the Indian market. In Europe, there is a “3G–doctor” Bluetooth phone that caters to the healthcare segment. It has a blood pressure cuff that will read and send information to the phone, which is seen by a doctor who can do a videoconference with the patient. Telemedicine can be powerful when you have scarce expertise that needs to be spread across various places.
Do you feel that Apple’s iPhone has the potential to disrupt the market?
The iPhone is a touch screen music phone, which will be available in the middle of the year in the USA. Walkman music devices are already available in the market. To an extent, Apple is following a trend that has been talked about for years…the future of the single use device is very limited even if it is the iPod. We regard Apple’s entry in the market as a proof point/endorsement that convergence is real. Apple’s entry into any market is exciting and it brings in a brand and design standard that is renowned. They will set a high standard in terms of consumer interface. It would be challenging if they join the smart phone segment. They may think about that, but they are in just one segment right now.
What is the status on the single core 3G phone project that Symbian is working on along with Nokia and Freescale?
This is a long term engagement to create the skeleton of a single core 3G phone that is cost effective. It would be ready by the end of 2007. It is an important building block.
What are you doing to counter competition from other players?
We are not complacent. We are aware that we are the number one target for our competitors. We are working with licensees and partners to make our next version better. We are innovating on more multimedia, interoperability and different types of radios. These are areas that operating systems have to be aware of in the next years. We are moving into a 3G world and also have technologies like WiMax and EDGE coming in. Getting ahead of the market is important but remaining in touch of the market is also important.
Handset vendors like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Samsung have a stake in Symbian. How do you manage the expectations of all these companies that are competitors in the market?
There is a definite separation between ownership and customers. We do have vendors who are fierce competitors in the market place. They are interested in the interests of Symbian. They can’t put us in a position that would be disadvantageous to us. They need us to be independent. Being even-handed is a very important value proposition for our customers.
We also have a couple of checks and balances within the company. We have a governance structure where any big material decision needs to get 70 per cent approval from stakeholders. No one person can decide what has to happen. We have an independent chairman who does not come from the shareholders.
You reached the 100 million phone milestone in 2006. How soon do you expect to touch the next 100 million?
We were in start up mode for the first five years since 1998 - the year the company was formed. Most of the 100 million growth has come in the last couple of years. We grew 100 per cent year on year in the last two years. We hope the next 100 million comes in a shorter period. That’s where the mass market comes in.
Can you give us a brief on Symbian’s development facility activities in India?
We started our Indian operations in 2003-'04 through a build-operate-trasfer tie-up with MphasiS. In 2005, we decided to move from the outsourced model to our own. About 70-80 per cent of our staff in Bangalore are directly employed by us. We opened our new office last year. During the transfer we were 150 people strong. Now, we have grown to 300 people. We wanted the engineers here to work on complete technologies rather than pieces of work. The open environment team here is responsible for the ground work on the Posix libraries.
© CyberMedia News
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