CyberMedia News reports that Symbian Ltd. is now setting its sights beyond its traditional realm of high-end smart phones. As the article says, Symbian is changing tacks to target the mid-range “feature-phone market”.
Feature phones are phones, which lack the typical bells and whistles associated with smart phones, but instead carry specific features such as MMS, digital music, games and camera features.
Symbian made the first step in its mid-range plan in February this year, by slashing the licensing rates for its customers (mobile handset manufacturers) so that they could target lower cost device market segments and drive higher volumes of Symbian OS phones. Another move was to team up with Nokia and Freescale to build a 3G-reference design platform for the mid-tier market. Despite the strong thrust on mid-tier, they hasten to add that the company would not shift from its primary focus-smart phone segment.
Symbian is also banking on its Indian development center for software development. The company recently opened a new facility, which houses 230 employees (and growing) in Bangalore.
Besides Bangalore, the company has development centers in Cambridge and London in the UK.