IBM, Symbian to Team Up on Wireless Applications

SAN FRANCISCO (02/15/2000) - IBM Corp. and Symbian Ltd. are working together to develop next-generation wireless applications for users of Symbian-based phones and communicators, the two companies announced today. The applications will enable users to access both Web-based and company data in real time and then work with the data they encounter offline.

Once such next-generation applications are up and running, transactions users perform will not be adversely impacted should the cellular connection on their phone be lost, said Jon Prial, director of marketing for IBM's pervasive computing division, based in Somers, New York, in a phone interview today.

"We will develop a secure message transport," Prial said. "The technology we will build into the phones will mean that when you push the button (on your phone to deploy a transaction), the information will get there." The data will be stored in the phone or the network, so loss of the cellular connection will not jeopardize the transaction.

Given that licensees of Symbian's EPOC operating system include L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co., Nokia Corp., Matsushita Communications Industrial Co. Ltd., Motorola Inc. and Psion PLC, a deal with Symbian gives IBM access to the manufacturers who produce 85 percent of the cell phones in today's market, Prial said. All five vendors also own stakes in the Symbian consortium.

"EPOC's key strength is that it pulls together all the device manufacturers to a common base, so there's a single developer team working on the OS," Prial said. The cell phone is evolving from being a voice-type device to a data processing device, he added.

Today's tie up with Symbian is part of IBM's overall pervasive computing strategy of "allowing customers to extend their e-business applications to a new class of devices," Prial said. Such applications will include CRM (customer relationship management) applications in the transportation and travel sectors, sales force automation applications for a company's remote sales force and a way of reaching a company's suppliers and distributors, he added.

IBM and Symbian are in the process of setting up staffing for a development center at Big Blue's Hursley Park site in the U.K. as their base for developing the applications, Prial said. He did not give a date for when the center will begin operations, nor could he be drawn on the number of staff likely to be employed there or the amount of the investment IBM is making in its joint relationship with Symbian. The pair will begin their development work by defining the kind of applications they intend to create, he added.

However, Prial stressed that IBM will be developing applications for other operating systems and a whole host of devices, not only those that support Symbian's EPOC. Other OSes include Palm Computing Inc.'s PalmOS and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE, he added.

Key IBM technology that will be utilized in the development tie up with Symbian will include Big Blue's MQSeries Everywhere messaging software and its DB/2 Everywhere database, Prial said. It is also likely that future releases of IBM's Lotus Development Corp.'s Mobile Notes will be supported by the next-generation Symbian devices, he added. IBM's Mobile Connect device synchronization software will also be used in the devices.

IBM is making today's announcement at the Symbian Developer Conference, which is being held in Santa Clara, California, this week. For more information on the conference, see http://www.symbiandevnet.com/.

Symbian and IBM intend to showcase the first live demonstration of their wireless management applications at the CeBIT show in Hanover towards the end of this month, according to an IBM statement.

IBM, in Armonk, New York, can be reached at +1-914-499-1900 or via the Internet at http://www.ibm.com/. Psion, in London, can be reached at +44-171-317-4100 or via the Internet at http://www.psion.com/.

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