An executive at BenQ, Taiwan�s largest mobile phone maker, said that the company will use the Symbian OS platform for a smartphone to be launched in the third quarter of 2003 or later. Link to digitimes article.
The article explains why they chose Symbian as their 1st choice over Microsoft although they do not rule out using it in the future. Anyway ts nice to see some more support for Symbian in Asia 😊.
The Financial Times has now reported about BenQ licensing Symbian. It also paints a pretty gloomy outlook for Microsoft's Smartphone. I like the bit about the SPV.
Microsoft launched its first Smartphone, the Orange SPV co-branded with the network operator and manufactured by HTC of Taiwan, with much fanfare last year but the SPV has been dogged by technical problems and mired in controversy.
Worth a read.
The BenQ signing has now been confirmed on the Symbian website. It confirms that they are aiming for a device in Q3 (I'll believe it when I see it 😉). More interestingly they will be using UIQ (i.e. P800) and not series 60 (i.e 7650) as was speculated by some other sites.
The link I posted in the above message no longer seems to exist 😮.
I hope the deal is still on.
I should have looked here before. The BenQ press release is also on the BenQ website. So the deal is definately done 😊