Independence is our unique selling point, says Symbian

Many people think Symbian's days are numbered.

It might just have open sourced its platform, but the rise of Android, not to mention key partner Nokia's MeeGo venture with Intel will provide plenty of competition.

The company itself begs to differ though.

Symbian still dominates the smartphone market according to figures released by Gartner. Its market share falling, but still a hefty 47 percent – and, if John Forsyth, head of Symbian's Strategy group, is to be believed, the OS may have one or two advantages over its rivals.

State of independence

Key of these is its independence from the likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft.

According to Forsyth, although Google and Microsoft are both enjoying success pushing their respective OSs on mobile manufacturers, at some point these interests will clash.

"One of the reasons is most of the platforms are controlled by someone with commercial interests which may at some point come into conflict with that device vendor," Forsyth told Mobile Entertainment.

That's not a problem with Symbian.

"We have no other interests to pursue, no axe to grind, and no conflict with any of our members," he continued.

"We don't exist to make a profit, but to steer a platform. We are measured by their profits, not by ours. That will make us a very important strategic option in the longer term, for the majority of people."

Android invasion

Still, Forsyth is clearly worried by the threat Android represents to Symbian's current position at the top of the table. In his view, Google's strategy is far too loose, and studios working on Android apps are the ones that end up suffering.

"They simply don’t have a roadmap, so people don't know what's coming, and there isn’t a way to contribute and participate in that," he argued, claiming that Apple suffers similarly, but is saved to a degree because it offers just one handset – iPhone.

"But in the world that Google is trying to operate in, you have many devices on different versions of Android, and even different releases of those versions," he added.

"They've even said that fragmentation isn’t a bad thing, but it's worrying for app developers. That was what killed mobile Java. Fragmentation is evil – that’s a good attitude for any platform organisation to have."
 
Forsyth's comments mimic those he made back in 2007 following Android's initial unveiling.

The Symbian man was quoted by the BBC as claiming Google would struggle to make an impression in the mobile market, stating that developers favoured a "stable platform that doesn't keep breaking".

[source: Mobile Entertainment]

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