LG predicts death of Symbian, BlackBerry, webOS

Rules out building its own operating system

18 February 2010 17:23 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Scott Ahn, head of LG's mobile business, has told a press conference that he thinks the smartphone market will increasingly consolidate - with the number of operating systems reducing to just three - iPhone, Android and Windows Phone - within a couple of years.

That would mean the effective death of Symbian, BlackBerry, Palm's webOS, Samsung's Bada, Maemo, and LiMo, as well as a number of smaller players. Of course, most of those platforms are only available on one company's handsets, which might be the reason for Ahn's predictions.

At the same time, Ahn ruled out making their own platform like rival Samsung, saying: "Our strategy is not to make an independent mobile platform of our own at least for the next two to three years. For a while, we will concentrate on Android and Windows Phone 7 Series by Microsoft".

"It is a competition of how to make an ecosystem that combines device, platform, contents and service. It is difficult for a single company to dominate the entire ecosystem".

Do you think the likes of Symbian and Maemo have a future? Or are they powerless in the face of competition from Apple, Google and Microsoft? Tell us whether you agree with Ahn or not in the comments.

Via: english.yonhapnews.co.kr

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