【英语中国】诺基亚手机操作系统Symbian瞄准中国

China and its legions of Nokia loyalists are proving to be the biggest opportunity for Symbian Foundation, the non-profit organization overseeing the development of the Symbian mobile operating system, the key platform used by Nokia.

At an event in Beijing Tuesday, foundation officials announced partnerships with Chinese online search company Baidu to develop search products and with U.S.-based Monotype Imaging to create a new open-source Chinese font, saying the partnerships illustrate the organization's commitment to China, where Symbian says it had 70% share of China's smartphone market as of the first quarter. Symbian Foundation Executive Director Lee Williams said the organization plans to have the 'most localized' and extensive mobile operating system in the Chinese marketplace, which is the world's largest by mobile subscribers.

The foundation may be right to direct more focus on China, where the popularity of iPhones and Android phones haven't been as explosive as in other markets, because smartphone penetration is still low compared to markets like the U.S., and in part because adoption of 3G services is just beginning. At the same time, its partner Nokia enjoys enormous brand recognition and trust among consumers in China, where it is the leading handset vendor. Some of the most popular Nokia smartphone models in China use Symbian, including the N97, the E63, the E71 and E72.

Connection to Nokia could help create a loyal user base in China for Symbian, which is an open-source platform that is also used by other handset manufacturers, as it tries to raise awareness of its platform among end-users. Though older than its chief competitors, Apple's iPhone and Google's Android operating systems, Symbian has not enjoyed the same high-profile exposure. Lawrence Berkin, the organization's head of global alliances, said this was partially by request from Symbian's partners in the past but that the foundation is trying to change that.

Perhaps as part of that strategy, Williams repeatedly took shots at the other operating systems at the Tuesday event in Beijing, saying the other platforms are technologically inferior and their partner networks are less mature than Symbian. When asked to comment on Motorola's decision to leave the Symbian network and create handsets running Android, he said 'I feel strongly they will be back,' and that the handset maker will 'realize the harms' of being part of an ecosystem that hasn't proven to be profitable and which won't take governance input from Motorola.

'Do not be fooled by some other' companies that say they have advanced features, Williams said. For example, the Symbian platform has long allowed users to simultaneously use multiple applications for years-a feature that was unavailable on Apple's iPhone operating system until now.

But even if Symbian can win Chinese consumers over, it still faces a universal challenge in China for any smartphone platform: It's still too early to say how quickly Chinese users will begin to take advantage of mobile applications and high speed data services, both drivers for users to purchase smartphones on a large scale. According to a survey of 2,000 young mobile users in China by China Market Research Group this year, 80% of respondents used prepaid mobile services rather than monthly subscription-based services, and had no plans to switch within the next three years.

中国及其大批诺基亚(Nokia)的忠实客户正在为Symbian Foundation提供最大的机遇。Symbian Foundation是个非盈利性组织，负责监管Symbian手机操作系统的开发，诺基亚手机主要使用这种系统。

周二在北京举办的一次活动上，Symbian Foundation高管宣布与中国在线搜索公司百度(Baidu)合作开发搜索产品，并与总部在美国的文本成像解决方案供应商Monotype Imaging合作创造一种新式开源代码汉字字模。该组织高管还说，这种合作关系表明Symbian Foundation致力于对中国市场的投入。据该组织说，截至一季度，其在中国智能手机市场上的份额已达70%。Symbian Foundation执行董事威廉姆斯(Lee Williams)说，该组织计划在中国这个全球最大的手机用户市场上推广大范围的、本地化程度最高的手机操作系统。

该组织更关注于中国市场的举措可能是正确的，中国市场上iPhone及Android手机的受欢迎程度尚未像其它市场那样火爆，因与美国等市场相比，智能手机在中国的渗透率仍然较低，部分原因是3G服务刚开始提供。同时，其合作伙伴诺基亚在中国消费者心目中的品牌认知度与信任度极高。诺基亚在中国手机市场居领军地位，诺基亚在中国最畅销的部分智能手机型号，如N97、E63、E71 及E72都采用Symbian系统。

与诺基亚的合作关系有助于为Symbian在中国产生忠实的用户群。Symbian是一个其它手机制造商也采用的开源代码平台，目前正尽力在终端用户中提高其平台的认知度。尽管Symbian面世早于其主要竞争对手如苹果(Apple)的iPhone及谷歌(Google)的Android操作系统，但并未获得同样高的市场曝光率。该组织的全球联盟负责人伯金(Lawrence Berkin)说，部分原因是过去Symbian的合伙人要求保持低调，但现在该组织正在尽力改变这种状况。

或许是出于这种考虑，周二在北京，威廉姆斯再三抨击其它操作系统，说其它平台存在技术缺陷，而且这些平台的合作网络也不如Symbian成熟。当被问及对摩托罗拉(Motorola)决定舍弃Symbian网络并打造运行Android系统的手机有何看法时，威廉姆斯说，他有种强烈的感觉，摩托罗拉会回来，并且摩托罗拉会意识到加入一个未经证明可以盈利的“小圈子”所带来的害处，而摩托罗拉对这个小圈子的存续也不能施加任何影响。

威廉姆斯说，不要因其它公司说具有某些先进的功能即受愚弄。例如，多年来，Symbian平台长期以来一直允许用户同时使用多种应用软件，这一功能至今在苹果的iPhone操作系统上尚不可能。

但即便Symbian能争取到中国的消费者，该公司在中国仍面临任何一个智能手机平台都需面对的一个普遍性问题，这个问题就是，谈论中国用户将如何迅速地开始享有手机应用软件及高速数据服务的好处仍为时过早，而这两项因素均是用户大规模购买智能手机的动力。中国市场研究集团(China Market Research Group)今年对中国两千名手机用户的调查结果显示，接受调查者中有80%使用预付费手机服务而非月度缴费服务，并且在今年三年内没有更改的打算。