Get Smart

By Mark Halper/London

When Nigel Clifford took over as chief executive of the London-based cell-phone software company Symbian this month, he walked into a daunting role: Microsoft slayer. Symbian makes operating systems that power smart phones--devices that make calls but also handle data, video, music, fancy games and e-mail. Symbian, with all of 913 employees, is pummeling Microsoft in that growing market. Of the 14.4 million smart phones that shipped globally last year, 82.1% use Symbian and only 6.4% use Microsoft, according to Reading, England, research firm Canalys.

But Clifford can't rest on his laurels. While Symbian has excelled in the market for business users, it has not done as well with consumer phones, notes Ovum analyst Tony Cripps in London. And Microsoft is gaining ground, according to Nomura security analyst Richard Windsor, who predicts 25.8 million Microsoft users by 2007, behind Symbian's 54.3 million. Clifford, 45, is fazed less by Microsoft and by other mobile operating systems like Linux and Palmsource's PalmOS than by another force: his target customers. If he can get more handset vendors to adopt Symbian technology and can persuade his existing customers to broaden their Symbian line instead of using their own software, he can reduce the company's reliance on Nokia, which represents 80% of all sales, according to Canalys. The selling point: the Symbian operating system lets handsets run many more applications than proprietary systems because software developers are drawn to "open" systems that run on various handsets and are not tied to one brand. But using the Symbian operating system adds to the cost of the phone: handset operators have to pay royalties.

So far, Symbian has excelled because it has strong ties to the mobile industry. It's owned by Nokia, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens and Samsung. But keeping Symbian's owners in harmony is tough. Flare-ups are common among companies concerned that Nokia's 48% stake in Symbian gives it too much say. Clifford has peacemaking experience. He ran the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he balanced the clashing interests of doctors, patients, university and government. Now he will have to broker peace with one hand while fighting competitors like Microsoft and Linux with the other. A new wrinkle appeared the day after Clifford took over, when share-holder Siemens agreed to sell its mobile-phone unit to Taiwan's BenQ. The acquisition includes Siemens' 8.4% stake in Symbian, but only if Symbian shareholders approve BenQ as a new owner. "Challenges are what get me up in the morning," says Clifford. It will be a while before he oversleeps. --By Mark Halper/London