Psion, Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson team up

Psion has signed a deal with Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson to form Symbian, a personal devices company. The joint venture will develop and sell smartphones and communicators that offer Internet access, messaging and information access in a pocket-size device.

Psion also aims to license its Epoc operating system to rival manufacturers. It claims it already has a number of vendors interested, including Philips. However, the company said it is not interested in dual branding of products.

Paul Cockerton, marketing manager of Symbian, said: "We don't insist on dual branding with our operating system. There is no mileage to be gained for a company to say it has a Symbian branded product, that company could be a well established consumer brand so we don't want to get into dual branding."

Psion will own 40 per cent of the company, while Ericsson and Nokia will control 30 per cent each. Pekka Ala-Pietila, president of Nokia Mobile Phone, said the company formed a "reliable and innovative path towards next generation mobile communications devices".