“Symbian’s EPOC operating system received a boost yesterday
when Reuters reported that Sharp Corporation was considering its
use. Symbian was originally formed as an alliance between the
UK’s Psion hand held computer company and several leading mobile
phone manufacturers.
A number of electronics companies, including Sharp, have sought
to ride the Windows CE bandwagon. … There have been some
technical factors constraining CE in the handheld and phone
markets. …market… established for CE devices… seems
relatively narrowly constrained between the low-end PC laptops and
the increasingly sophisticated PDAs including Palm and Psion.”
“Sharp’s latest review suggests that computer makers are now
seriously looking at partnering with an operating system company
that looks less threatening and currently has a technology lead for
ultra lightweight devices. With technology support from IBM,
Sybase, Citrix, Oracle and other mainstream companies, Symbian
looks well placed to become the standard for a very large number of
hand held devices.”