Symbian is a strategic partner to Sony Ericsson, and is supplying the operating system to Sony Ericsson smartphones. The Sony Ericsson P800 is widely known as the most advanced phone on the market, and an excellent two-in-one PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and mobile phone.

On September 18, Symbian organized its first of two partner events this year. Held in San Francisco, this event focused on the strategic elements of Symbian OS in the mobile market. The second Symbian Partner Event will take place in London in December, and will focus more on technology.

At these one-day partner events ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) and enterprises have the opportunity to learn more about where Symbian is moving in the marketplace, how the OS will evolve in the future and how the licensees position the Symbian OS-enabled products in the marketplace. Sony Ericsson with its P800 smartphone is obviously one of the most high-profile partners along with Nokia.

This year, the partner event was preceded by a day of discussions in the Symbian Enterprise Advisory Council (SEAC), where enterprise oriented companies discussed with Symbian how they can enhance their offering in that particular segment. Sony Ericsson participated actively in that discussion with Vu Nguyen, new VP of Enterprise and Emerging Business, along with Haroon Alvi, VP of Application Planning and Henrik Voigt, Senior Manager Enterprise Alliances & R2R (Ready-to-Run solutions). They met with a number of important companies during the two days, including IBM and Oracle.

These partner events are a great opportunity to connect with ISVs and other technology companies and get them excited about what Sony Ericsson has to offer and how we can improve their own solutions for corporate customers. The Sony Ericsson Developer Program had a focused presence with a P800 product exhibition and face-to-face meetings with many interesting US-based development companies.

Overall, this event was a good one for Sony Ericsson, with many new contacts that will support the P800's continued success in the market with new and exciting solutions. It also solidified Sony Ericsson's support for Symbian as a critical component for our high-end products going forward, as well as strengthening Symbian's place within the smartphone OS market.