Symbian and America Online say they will work together on providing a variety of wireless media and messaging services on next generation smart phones based on Symbian's operating system.

America Online said it has joined Symbian's Platinum partner program and will develop a variety of wireless instant messaging services that will run on Symbian-based devices. Those services are expected to combine technologies, including AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and recently-acquired T9 Text Input, a company that specializes in predictive text input software.

"Instant messaging is one of AOL's most popular products and what they are doing with Symbian is bringing a successful desktop product and migrating it to the cell phone environment," says Martin Reynolds, technology analyst at Gartner.

In addition to wireless messaging services, America Online also plans to develop what it calls "content-based services and applications" for the Symbian operating system. Those applications could run on a variety of different devices. Motorola (Quote, Company Info), Nokia (Quote, Company Info), Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson are among the Symbian partners that are building wireless devices that will run on the Symbian OS.