Symbian OS 3G Smartphones

BenQ and Symbian Ltd announce that BenQ, a leading Taiwanese consumer electronics manufacturer, has signed an agreement to license Symbian OS, the global industry standard operating system for advanced mobile phones.

Inset is a BenQ GPRS mobile.

BenQ will design, manufacture and market Symbian OS smartphones for 2.5G, and possibly 3G, networks worldwide.

BenQ selected Symbian OS on the basis of its strong technology, which has earned Symbian OS its market position as the de-facto industry standard operating system for advanced mobile phones. Using Symbian OS, BenQ will create innovative and highly differentiated smartphones for customers worldwide. BenQ's customers will also benefit from developers creating third party applications and services for Symbian OS phones.

BenQ's first Symbian OS product, anticipated to be available by Q3, 2003, will be a data-enabled smartphone integrating the UIQ user interface platform. UIQ, developed by UIQ Technology AB in Ronneby, Sweden, is a fully owned subsidiary of Symbian Ltd and is designed to run on Symbian OS. UIQ provides Symbian's licensees an easy user interface for large, touch-sensitive colour display and enables richer data services. Its flexibility helps licensees to market a variety of mobile phones using a common technology base, making it easier to bring Symbian OS feature rich mobile phones to market.

"Symbian OS was developed in partnership with the industry, based on open standards and has a rapidly growing third party technology and software developer community. BenQ looks forward to working with Symbian OS in delivering innovative, differentiated smart phones to worldwide markets." remarks Irwin Chen VP and GM of Networking and Communications Business Group of BenQ Corporation.

David Levin, CEO, Symbian Ltd., said "BenQ has earned a strong reputation in the consumer electronics hardware industry for the quality and performance of its products. Symbian is delighted that BenQ has chosen Symbian OS and our user interface platform, UIQ, to develop smartphone products for markets and customers worldwide."

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