Here’s my story of the context of this morning’s announcement, “China Mobile and Symbian Foundation Collaborate to Improve Mobile Ecosystem and Stimulate Development for TD-SCDMA in China“.
In July 2006, I spent 14 days on a family holiday travelling around China. Everywhere we went, we saw evidence of vast scale. There was also plenty of evidence of rapid transition. Our tourguide in the city of Wuhan brought this home to me with the following pithy remark:
Six years ago, mobile phones were pretty rare in these parts. Nowadays even the cleaning ladies have mobile phones!
These same impressions – scale, and rapid transition – strike me every time I return to China. The region already hosts three of the world’s top ten phone manufacturers: ZTE, Huawei, and HTC. These companies abound with ambition to make even larger impacts on the worldwide market. The network operator China Mobile (“CMCC”) comfortably heads Wikipedia’s list of the world’s largest network operators, with half a billion subscribers.
Mix in fast-rising semiconductor vendors, energetic internet services companies, and nimble multi-skilled design houses, along with a huge flow of highly educated engineering graduates from numerous universities around the country, eager to work hard in a vigorously competitive marketplace, and it’s no surprise that people say that China is becoming the next silicon valley.
Symbian is playing an important role in this transformation. Nowadays, Symbian-powered devices can be seen on table tops in coffee shops all over China. The Nokia E71 seems to be a particular favourite, striking a real sweet point in utility. This perception is echoed by data from “app store analytics” company Distimo, which recently listed the set of the phone models supported by the initial roll-out of the Mobile Market initiative from CMCC. This list comprises 2 Linux (Ophone) devices, 3 Windows Mobile devices, and 35 Symbian devices (including devices by both Samsung and Nokia). Further, as reported in this morning’s press release:
Currently, more than 50% of Mobile Market’s 2,000 applications are based on the Symbian platform.
So much for the present. What about the future? The press release gives details of joint initiatives between China Mobile and Symbian to enable and create new generations of mobile handsets, applications, and services. For example:
The first partnership initiative is the simplification of Symbian Signed testing services for developers submitting applications to CMCC’s newly launched application store, Mobile Market. The inclusion of Symbian Signed services will allow CMCC to provide mobile developers with a one-stop facility for testing, signing and publishing their Symbian-based applications…
Symbian has guaranteed its support for CMCC’s plans to strengthen its TD-SCDMA 3G network, and to facilitate the Symbian ecosystem in its development of Symbian-based TD-SCDMA devices that will bring the benefits of a 3G network to the operator’s millions of subscribers in the future.
“The Symbian platform holds a strong position in China’s mobile market and we welcome the opportunity to build our relationship with the Symbian Foundation,” commented Lu Xiang Dong, Executive Vice President at China Mobile. “By entering this partnership with the foundation we hope to have greater involvement in the development of new and exciting mobile applications, thereby enabling developers to satisfy consumers’ 3G requirements via our Mobile Market store and enhancing the value chain for the TD-SCDMA industry.”
EVP Lu Xiang Dong, the #3 executive in China Mobile, paid Symbian the honour of visiting us in our offices in London over the last two days. He brought with him a high-powered team of senior managers, who reviewed many aspects of Symbian’s roadmap, processes, and ecosystem management capabilities. These two days culminated in the formal signing of a joint “Memorandum of Understanding” (MoU), as witnessed and supported by representatives from the Symbian Foundation Board member companies:
In the picture: Lu Xiang Dong of CMCC and Lee Williams of Symbian sign the MoU, while the following look on: David Chun (Symbian), David Rivas (Nokia), Andreas Malzach (ST-Ericsson), Sonia Ferrante (TI), Stephen Storer (Samsung), and David Wood (Symbian).
This MoU paves the way for Symbian to remain at the heart of the remarkable expansion of smart mobile services throughout the China region and beyond. Of the “next four billion” that I mentioned in my previous blog post, a significant number are based in this region. I can’t be sure, but my hunch is that the same Wuhan tourguide, just a few years from now, will be telling her touring parties:
Six years ago, smartphones were pretty rare in these parts. Nowadays even the cleaning ladies have smartphones!
Note: this agreement is the culmination of hard work over many months, led in China by Symbian’s China Region General Manager, David Chun. You can read more about David Chun’s story here.
Can we ever see Symbian phones by ZTE, Huawei, Lenovo, and HTC.
I think one of them is a licensee but haven’t seen any phones.
Could you please explain why Chinese vendors, specially HTC, is reluctant to Symbian?
Historically, Chinese vendors were not able to access Symbian source code, for reasons of Intellectual Property protection.
Not only vendors, but also local software services companies, were unable to develop any deep expertise in Symbian device creation.
So it’s no surprise there were few Symbian devices created by Chinese companies.
Following the creation of the Symbian Foundation, that’s now changed. Many companies in China now have access to all the Symbian source code, and are studying it hard.
The change won’t complete overnight. It will still take Chinese companies some time to become fully proficient in Symbian device creation. However, many Chinese companies are aware of their new opportunities in the Symbian world.
// David W.
Thanks David.
If source code is the reason then why Windows Mobile is popular in China? I don’t think Microsoft gives away source code.
Does this mean Nokia / Symbian failed to build Symbian expertise in its largest market??
Hmm, good question.
Windows Mobile has tended to have a different device creation philosophy from Symbian: the extent of device customisation expected and enabled has often been less, for Windows Mobile, than for Symbian.
That’s one reason why it has been easier, for new licensees, to create a Windows Mobile device than a Symbian one. Lack of source code access and a local skilled community exacerbated this difference.
On the other hand, merely the fact that there have been many Windows Mobile device models created in China, does not mean that the profits made by selling Windows Mobile devices is high. Devices that often look pretty similar to competitors products are hard to stand out in the marketplace.
Incidentally, ongoing changes in Symbian development tools, kits, and packaging are intended to reduce the element of device customisation that is required, in creating a Symbian device.
Great to see this news , announcement and interesting to
knowing about Mr David Chun on this magic date 09-09-09
~Sridhar
Dear David ,
can you tell us little about whats your views on South korea market because i was here and very rarely seeing the symbian devices.
and two of world largest handset vendors are from here only
Thank you
I even heard many Chinese mobile companies use pirated Windows Mobile versions.
Why such enthusiasm is not there towards Symbian?
Behind the screens the following might be a reason.
“Allowing Chines vendors to use Symbian could result in brand dilution for Nokia.”
I don’t know if you accept that.
@sdhar27,
South Korea market is closed until now and they opened up just recently to allow non-WIPI platforms.
It’s a saturated market I don’t think Symbian has much to explore there.
Hi sdhar27,
The comparative lack of Symbian devices in Korea is due more to some accidents of history than to any fundamental reason.
I look forward to a time, in the not-too-distant future, when this blog might feature a “Korea week” that parallels the present “China week”.
Hi chips,
I don’t believe ANY mobile phone market in the world is “saturated” in the sense that there’s no room for improvement. There’s potential for adoption of Symbian in all these markets. Devices that today look “unsurpassable” or “almost perfect” will, with the passage of time, come to appear primitive, slow, clunky, and underpowered, compared to forthcoming devices of the near future.
// David W.
Hi chips,
You wonder whether Symbian’s policy towards China might be governed by the view,
I see this as doubly wrong:
1.) Symbian is not controlled by Nokia. Nokia is only one of 8 board members, each of whom have just one vote on governance matters.
2.) In any case, Nokia (like the other Symbian board member companies) has adopted the principles of “open platform” and “collaborate before competing”. Nokia would far rather these Chinese vendors build products using Symbian than using another mobile platform. In the former case, the Symbian ecosystem will strengthen as a result of the new products, and this stronger ecosystem will in turn bring extra benefits to Nokia.
// David W.
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Smartphones are still not affordable in the developing world. Ironically, people who can afford them are getting huge subsidies in the western world.
Anything above $200 price point is too much in China and India.
I have seen many poor people opting for clones from China because they can’t afford Nokia or Samsung.
My neighbour recently showed me FXD T50i model from china which is available to him at $70 and can play mp3/4, touchscreen and what not!
This made me to think that developing markets have a long way to go beyond those flashy PRs from telecom companies.
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