When is a phone not a phone?
Answer, when it’s being previewed at the Symbain Smartphone Expo.
Although Symbian itself produced two press releases welcoming the launch of handsets from LG and Samsung (both built on Symbian OS 9.0 and Series 60 UI) the companies themselves took a more hands-off approach to the handsets.
An LG spokeperson said that the LG JoY was not actually an handset as such. It’s more a name given to a “prototype” that’s a work in progress.
And Samsung itself produced no details of its handset, and it has no official release or details on the handset.
Symbian, though, perhaps keen to have something concrete to announce,had obviously received clearance from the companies concerned and ceo Nigel Clifford was waving a few around at his press briefing and during his conference keynote speech.
New smartphones at decent price points are crucial to Symbian, as it seeks to convince those in and outside the industry that not only are smartphones the future of computing, but that the Symbian OS represents the future of smartphones.
Clifford said that in five years’ time 30% of phones sold would be smartphones, and of those 50% will be shipped to “leapfrog economies” – those countries which will leap straight over the fixed PC stage to mobile computing use. Other drivers for smartphone use would be the social networking generation.