Symbian Tries to Set New CourseSymbian Tries to Set New Course

The cutthroat competition evident in the cell phone market is evident by conflicting messages coming from Symbian. On the one hand, the company has been garnering more support from third parties, yet revenue has dipped. Consequently, small and medium businesses are beginning to ask,What does the future hold for the company?Symbian has been gradually evolving from a partly owned entity into an autonomous company, something that is expected to be completed its fourth quarter 2008. As part of that transition, the company has trying to rally support around its system and recently added 12 new backers, including Fujisoft, Huawei, and Visa.

At the same time, the vendor announced its second quarter 2008 revenue, and the results were decidedly mixed. The number of devices shipping with its operating system worldwide rose from 34.6 million in 2007 to 38.1 million in 2008. However, the firms revenue dropped from $85.4 million to $81.3 million. The main factor was a reduction of about $7.5 million in royalty payments.

As a result, Symbian finds itself at an interesting crossroad. The company has been one of the smartphone market leaders because its products arrived when the market was emerging and gained traction because of the backing of established companies, such as Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. But recently, Apple and Google have turned their attention to the cell phone sector, so Symbian now faces stiff competitive pressures and seems to be wilting a bit. Many small and medium businesses rely on Symbian smartphones for their remote workers. As the company tries to maneuver in a dramatically changing market, they may rethink their decisions.

Do you have any Symbian devices? What do you like about its smartphones? Do you have concerns about the companys future?