News Article
Samsung Buys Symbian Stake
Samsung Electronics has become a new shareholder in the Symbian operating system (OS). The OS is designed for handheld devices and was originally developed for the Psion electronic organiser. Since then Symbian has been promoted for smartphones, with backing from companies such as Nokia, Ericsson/Sony Ericsson and Motorola.
Samsung Electronics has become a new shareholder in the Symbian operating system (OS). The OS is designed for handheld devices and was originally developed for the Psion electronic organiser. Since then Symbian has been promoted for smartphones, with backing from companies such as Nokia, Ericsson/Sony Ericsson and Motorola.
Samsung will acquire a 5.0% shareholding in Symbian for GBP17.0mn. Other shareholders are Panasonic, Psion and Siemens.
Commentators saw the deal as a body-blow to Microsoft's hopes to gain a foothold in the mobile phone market. Samsung had been the only big manufacturer to license Microsoft's mobile operating software. Samsung also has a previous licence to Symbian.
The phone companies don't want to hand control of the market to others fearing the sort of commoditisation that happened to the PC market where the big money has gone to Microsoft and Intel reducing the manufacturers to making clones.