Symbian: iPhone 'no threat'
updated 01:45 pm EST, Tue February 13, 2007
Symbian Comment on iPhone
The upcoming iPhone poses no immediate threat to Symbian's dominance of the cellphone world, the company's CEO said at a press conference during the 3GSM expo today in Barcelona. Speaking to journalists gathered at the event, Symbian chief Nigel Clifford was optimistic about the Apple device as a potential catalyst for the company's already booming sales, potentially reversing North American stereotypes of smartphones as having only specific uses.
"This could educate the American consumer that there is more that you can do with a phone than treat it as an email device," Clifford hoped.
The software firm's leader also noted that smartphone pricing was about to dip substantially, as the partners who use the Symbian OS backbone -- including Nokia, Samsung, and Sony-Ericsson -- are on the verge of producing many of their smartphones at prices under the €199 ($258) barrier -- nearly half the price of the iPhone. Many see this as the turning point where smartphones get true acceptance, Clifford said. The change has been helped along by lower costs and greater access to cell services, especially mobile Internet connections.
Symbian is likely to eclipse Apple's sales for at least the near future, as the company reported on Tuesday that it had shipped 51.7 million phones based on its platform in just the past year, grabbing a 73 percent share of smartphones in particular. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has so far targeted iPhone sales at a much more cautious 10 million per year in 2008. The California company will be the only one to use its mobile edition of Mac OS X.
