Symbian unveils new smartphone software

British mobile phone software maker Symbian unveiled on Wednesday a new version of its operating system that supports high resolution cameras and three-dimensional games graphics.

The software, which runs on faster processors based on designs from British chip developer ARM, comes with reference designs and other tools to help mobile phone producers save time and cut costs when developing new models.

The software can process pictures of two million pixels and more, it can send stereo music to a wirelessly connected headset and can import MP3 songs from a desktop computer without the need for additional synchronisation software.

The first phones with Symbian "operating system version 9" will be introduced in the second half of 2005, with volume sales expected by Christmas, said Symbian spokesman Peter Bancroft.

Symbian is the world's biggest producer of software for so-called smartphones, a new category of versatile phones that can have built-in music players and video recorders, and which run computer-like applications such as enterprise customer relationship software, car navigation programmes and e-mail.

Today its software is the engine of some 20 million phones, available through 200 mobile operators around the world.

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Symbian was set up with financial backing from the world's biggest mobile phone vendors, including Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, who wanted a strong alternative supplier to Microsoft.   While Microsoft aims for corporate clients looking to supply smartphones that work well with other Microsoft software on office computers, Symbian is looking for big volume sales in the mass consumer markets where multimedia and video phones are becoming more popular with the advent of faster networks.

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"Symbian is a volume business," Bancroft said, adding that his company has also added functions that enable companies to more easily manage the security of their employees' phones, and which make it more convenient to access corporate e-mail and calendars.  While its license fees are unchanged from version 8, Symbian hopes its tools to lower development costs will accelerate the price erosion of smartphones, which is already happening as a result of cheaper components, thereby creating a bigger market for advanced phones.

Market research group IDC forecasts 130 million smartphones will be sold in 2008 alone. Symbian receives between $5 and $7.25 for every phone that contains its software, depending on sales volumes.

Symbian, regarded by analysts as a candidate for an Initial Public Offering, is due to report 2004 results on Feb. 14.