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... and onwards to 2004
What does 2004 hold in store for Symbian? Firstly we know there will be new devices, Symbian have indicated that in total there are currently 31 phones and variants under development by 9 licensees. The Sendo X, BenQ P30 and Nokia 7700 have already been announced and while it is likely that the lion's share of devices will emanate from Nokia we can expect to also see new phones from Fujitsu, Panasonic, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. Add to this the fact that LG has indicated that they will also be using Symbian OS in a range of phones, and that speculation continues that several other far eastern device manufacturers are likely to sign up for Symbian 2004 won't be short of hardware news. Also look out for new licensees in niche areas such as GPS.
On the applications front we expect 2004 will see some significant changes. As we noted earlier 2003 has seen an increasing number of mobile developers, mainly Palm developers, start to bring their applications to Symbian OS. We expect this trend to continue and strengthen in 2004 with an increasing number of Windows developers, including ones which have not traditionally worked across multiple platforms, starting to port their applications to Symbian OS. This will bring significant competition for the established Symbian OS developers, but ultimately benefit Symbian smartphone owners with a wider range of software.
2004 will also see the first real inroads for Symbian into the enterprise. We expect to see the partnerships with the likes of IBM and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young bare fruit. Symbian themselves are also likely to get a lot more active in this area as, unlike the consumer market where the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson have a direct relationship with the consumer, the enterprise will be in many ways more focused on buying into the operating system and Symbian clearly has a role there. We are also expecting some significant announcements from the major players in this area during 2004.
For developers we are expecting a steady growth in the tools available for native C++ development during 2004, nothing revolutionary but a progressive enabling of existing tools for Symbian development over the entire development lifecycle from analysis through design and coding to testing.
In the market the two significant growth areas will be mobile gaming and mobile media, with greater emphasis on those products and services which drive data traffic. Location based service will also show significant growth with a number of devices following in the steps of the Motorola A920 and adding location APIs. Services will lag somewhat and we don't expect to see much of significance until the second half of the year, but we strongly expect that by this time next year you won't be able to get away from the hype.
Overall we expect 2004 to be an interesting year not only for Symbian but the smartphone market in general. 2004 is likely to see sales of smartphones truly broadening into the mass market and taking computing to a new audience. This is likely to create opportunities which we can not foresee, but rest assured that during 2004 SymbianOne will keep you up to date with the changing Symbian ecosystem and provide you with the information you need as a user or developer to make the most of the opportunities it presents.
Do you agree with our picks and predictions? Let us know what you think was the best of 2003 and what 2004 has in store via our contact page.
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