While we wait patiently for 3G phones to come to the US (and work here as well), software company Symbian has joined up with chipmaker Freescale to deliver a blueprint for a smartphone using the 3G networks, and most importantly, will halve its license fees for these phones to give smaller cellphone companies a chance to get into the 3G game.
“We provide the core of the handset so that they can concentrate on design, features and the user interface. We anticipate a more level playing field,” Symbian Chief Executive Nigel Clifford said.
Of course, that means the guts of phones that take advantage of this new platform will be nearly identical. If it were anyone other than Symbian, whose software platform powers many phones from heavy-hitters like Nokia and Sony, we’d be worried. But we like Symbian as a phone interface (and slightly less so as a PDA-like smartphone OS), so it sounds good to us.
Symbian designs 3G phone with Freescale, cuts prices [Reuters]
