14 DAY TRIAL // China Mobile, the world's largest carrier when it comes to the number of subscribers, together with the Symbian Foundation announced today their collaboration on the improvement of the mobile ecosystem in the country. At the same time, the agreement between the two is also aimed at stimulating the development of the market for TD-SCDMA, China Mobile's 3G network standard. In addition, the duo also announced the launch of Symbian's Chinese website, as well as the carrier's support for the Symbian Foundation.
One of the first results that will follow the newly announced partnership is the simplification of Symbian Signed testing services, so as so attract developers towards Mobile Market, China Mobile's own application store. Almost half of the 2,000 currently available applications on the Mobile Market have been developed for the Symbian platform, and developers will have from now on the possibility to publish their applications through Symbian Horizon, an application publishing program.
“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, 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.”
Symbian will also help China Mobile strengthen its TD-SCDMA 3G network and will ease the development of Symbian-based TD-SCDMA devices. Along with the newly launched website, the Symbian Foundation also plans to open a local office in Beijing. Its move in the area is driven by the growing interest industry players in the area have shown to the Symbian operating system. Not only that China is the second country in the world when it comes to the number of full foundation members, but the largest number of developers that registered with the English language developer site came from this country.
“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.”