China Mobile and Symbian Foundation Collaborate to Improve Mobile Ecosystem and Stimulate Development for TD-SCDMA in China
Strategic partnership signals growing investment by Symbian in China

(Source: the Symbian Foundation, www.symbian.org)

China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC), the world's largest mobile network operator, and the Symbian Foundation today announced an agreement to collaborate on a series of key initiatives to improve the mobile ecosystem in China and to stimulate the development of the market for CCMC's locally developed 3G network standard, TD-SCDMA. The partnership also marks Symbian's Chinese website launch, broader focus on the Chinese market and China Mobile’s determination to support the Symbian Foundation.

The first partnership initiative is the simplification of Symbian Signed testing services for developers submitting applications to CMCC's newly launched application store, Mobile Market. The inclusion of Symbian Signed services will allow CMCC to provide mobile developers with a one-stop facility for testing, signing and publishing their Symbian-based applications. Currently, more than 50% of Mobile Market's 2,000 applications are based on the Symbian platform. Mobile Market will also support applications published via Symbian's new application publishing programme, Horizon.

Symbian has guaranteed its support for CMCC's plans to strengthen its TD-SCDMA 3G network, and to facilitate the Symbian ecosystem in its development of Symbian-based TD-SCDMA devices that will bring the benefits of a 3G network to the operator's millions of subscribers in the future.

"The Symbian platform holds a strong position in China's mobile market and we welcome the opportunity to build our relationship with the Symbian Foundation," commented Lu Xiang Dong, Executive Vice President at China Mobile. "By entering this partnership with the foundation we hope to have greater involvement in the development of new and exciting mobile applications, thereby enabling developers to satisfy consumers’ 3G requirements via our Mobile Market store and enhancing the value chain for the TD-SCDMA industry."

Alongside this partnership, Symbian recently launched a Chinese version of its website to promote and support the adoption of the Symbian platform in the region: www.symbian.org/cn. The foundation has also laid out plans to establish an office and local operation in Beijing, further demonstrating Symbian's growing investment in China.

This commitment to the Chinese market is supported by evidence of increasing interest in the foundation and the Symbian platform by developers and partners in the region. For example:

China ranks second in countries with the highest number of full foundation members, with more than ten percent of all Symbian members located within the region, including major handset manufacturers, Huawei and ZTE. The US holds the number one spot, with the UK and Japan tied for third.
Prior to the launch of Symbian's Chinese website, more registrants and visitors to its English language developer site came from China than from any other country. Registrants from the US and India rank second and third respectively.
"China Mobile has played a leading role in the development of mobile communications, not just in China but also on an international scale and we look forward to having them share their expertise with the growing Symbian community," noted Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation."

"Additionally, the integration of Symbian Signed into CMCC's developer programme and Mobile Market services will enable smoother access for Symbian developers to the largest mobile user base in the world."

"The China mobile market and ecosystem remains of great strategic importance to Symbian. As the world's largest mobile market, with over 600 million users and close to 239 million units expected to ship this year1, China continues to offer vast opportunities to build on our strengths as the leading mobile platform in the country."

- Ends -

1iSuppli Corporation, "China's Mobile Handset Market Expands by 9 Percent in Q1", 24 June 2009.

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About China Mobile Communications Corporation
As the leading mobile telecommunication operator in China, China Mobile provides mobile voice and data services as well as other related services in all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and directly-administered municipalities in mainland China, in addition, it is one of the major mobile telecommunication operators in Hong Kong. As of July 31, 2009, the number of users reached approximately 497 million, ranking number one in the world.

About Symbian Foundation Limited
The Symbian Foundation is an independent, non-profit organisation whose mission is to enable an open ecosystem that collaborates to create the most complete and richest user experiences for mobile devices. Symbian maintains the code for an open source software platform based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson, including the S60 and MOAP(S) user interfaces. Portions of the platform's source code have already been moved to open source, under the Eclipse Public License. By mid-2010 this process will be complete, making the platform code available to all for free. The foundation software licensing model and governance structure has been designed to secure transparency, encourage contribution and maintain platform consistency. The foundation promotes collaboration, contributions and active participation, and operates as a meritocracy. Symbian's board of directors is comprised of the following companies: AT&T Mobility LLC, Nokia Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, ST Microelectronics NV, Texas Instruments Inc., and Vodafone Group Services Ltd. The Symbian Foundation now occupies offices in the UK (London), US (Foster City), Japan (Tokyo), and Finland (Helsinki), and will soon have a regional operation in China (Beijing). For more information please visit www.symbian.org and blog.symbian.org.