Following on from the Sharp/NTT DoCoMo accouncement last week, Sharp have confirmed they are now licencing the Symbian OS (reports Symbian). Note they're not joining Symbian, but rather just licencing the OS, in the same way Motorola are now doing.
Sharp Confirm Symbian OS Licencing
Sharp licenses Symbian OS
Leading Japanese electronics manufacturer to use Symbian OS� for advanced mobile phones
London , UK � 6 December 2004� Symbian Limited announced today that Sharp Corporation has licensed Symbian OS� for the development of its advanced-featured mobile phones also called smartphones. Symbian OS is the global industry standard operating system for smartphones and is licensed to the world�s leading handset manufacturers. Almost 20 million phones based on Symbian OS have been shipped worldwide to date.
Sharp has chosen Symbian OS to deliver advanced mobile phones with the features that network operators around the world. By adopting the open standard Symbian OS technology, Sharp can benefit from reduced phone development costs, accelerated time-to-market and the ability to add unique differentiating features to phones.
David Levin, CEO of Symbian said, �We are delighted that Sharp has become a Symbian OS licensee. Sharp�s mobile phones are supplied to network operators across Europe and Japan and the company shares the same vision as Symbian in making highly-featured, different and innovative mobile phones. Symbian is pleased to work with Sharp and to support them in their plans increase their mobile phone shipments internationally.�