At the Symbian Developer Conference here Tuesday (US time), the pair announced a joint-development agreement under which IBM's MessageQ middleware, small-footprint DB2 and synchronization software will be integrated with Symbian's EPOC operating system and software.
In the future, IBM will add other software to the platform, including device management software, said Mark Bregman, general manager of IBM's Pervasive Computing group, during a keynote speech at the show.
The combination of IBM and Symbian software will allow mobile users to access the Internet, download data and then use their EPOC-based devices to work offline, said company officials.
IBM thinks the market has huge potential. "For every PC sold now, there are three non-PC devices sold," Bregman said. "And 70 percent of all mobile phones and 80 percent of all PDAs will have Web and Internet access. PCs will soon be in the minority of devices accessing the Internet."
Also at the show, Symbian announced it is working with 11 vendors, including chip designer ARM and BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies, to promote development of smart phones and so-called communicators based on the EPOC operating environment.
Symbian is the UK-based company jointly owned by Ericsson, Matsushita, Motorola, Nokia and Psion.
Symbian creates reference design platforms that hardware makers follow to design and manufacture smart phones, PDAs and communicators. The company plans to outline three to four reference designs, which licensees can customize through individual look and feel and applications suites, according to Colly Myers, Symbian's CEO, during his keynote speech. P>Johan Lodenius, senior vice president of marketing and product development at Qualcomm, delivered the conference's third keynote. Lodenius described a sea of new device types that Qualcomm thinks will soon pervade the wireless world, including communicators, cameras, wallets and pocket navigators.
