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All eyes in the wireless world turn to Barcelona, Spain next week for the giant 3GSM trade show. Some of the attractions of this year's conference will highlight how the mobile industry plans to bring down the price of smartphones and advanced feature phones, so more people can take advantage of today's growing appetite for multimedia and 3G, and everyone involved—developers, chip makers, phone vendors, content providers, carriers, etc.—can earn additional revenue.

With its market share under assault from Microsoft and Linux, smartphone platform leader Symbian joined Freescale Semiconductor to announce the creation of a 3G phone reference design using Freescale's single core modem and targeted to run Nokia's S60 (formally Series 60) interface on the Symbian OS this week. The companies say this design aims to take Symbian exclusively out of the high-end and move it into the mid-tier broadband market segment; making phones built on the platform more attractive to end-users and industry players.

And with the market changing so rapidly, they assert the reference design will reduce development time by up to 50 percent—to about 9 months instead of the usual 18. The foundation of this blueprint is Freescale's MXC300-30 platform, to be showcased at 3GSM.

Senior VP & general manager of Freescale's Wireless and Mobile Systems Group Franz Fink said, "This S60 on Symbian OS-based single core reference design is a great step forward for OEMs to align feature sets and dramatically reduce development time for next-generation mid-tier 3G mobile phones. Additionally, operators can increase their coverage by adding more people to the network and recouping 3G infrastructure investments."

Phone designer Elektrobit is implementing the reference design into an S60 phone already. The sample smartphone aims to shorten development time because it will be pre-tested for full type approval and interoperability testing. The companies assert the test phone will fuel 3G handset growth ( including the Symbian variety, of course), which, according to an IDC November 2005 report, should increase from 62 million handsets in 2005 to 356 million in 2009.

As for Nokia, it views the reference design as a chance to see its S60 interface—by far the best-selling smartphone interface in the world—into the hands of even more end users by making it more economical for licensees to get Symbian phones to market. "Collaboration of Elektrobit and Freescale is another sign of the success of S60 as the market leading smartphone software, on track to volumes in 3G. The new reference phone is an excellent tool for S60 licensees to optimize time-to-market and economies of scale," Vänskä said.

To further encourage manufacturers, Symbian also cut licensing fees for its operating system in half, from a low of about about $5 per handset to $2.50 a phone. "Symbian is focused on reducing development costs and improving performance for our customers' mid-tier low-cost phones," said the platform developer's VP of product management & strategy Jorgen Behrens. "The results of this collaboration with Freescale, Nokia and Symbian will encourage handset manufacturers to develop more 3G phones and significantly shorten their time to market."

Expect to see shipping phones built on this reference design in 2007.

How Symbian Works

Most manufacturers who build Symbian-based handsets add a second interface layer—usually Nokia’s S60 interface, but sometimes UIQ—to provide some of their smartphones functionality, look, and feel. So In essence, to use a housing metaphor, Symbian is the foundation, plumbing, and electrical system; the interface is the furnishings and appliances; and the hardware is the frame upon which the smartphone is built.