[What will Symbian devices look like, and do? ]

If the sound of analysts drooling over mobile wireless devices sounds familiar, then that's probably because it is. We've been here many times before -- the early 90s in particular were a graveyard for ambitious wireless ventures. But this time it may be different. For a start, we already have a mass market for mobile wireless computers -- only that most of us think of them simply as phones. But inside each digital handset is a 32bit Risc chip, with maybe half a megabyte or more of RAM, and a proprietary, real-time embedded OS. The market that's delivering these uses a razor-and-blades model that subsidizes the cost of the device from the network's airtime minutes.

Now, Symbian doesn't manufacture anything itself -- it produces device-family reference platforms (DFRDs) for its shareholders and other licensees to take away and run with. But all the DFRDs integrate computing with built-in telephony. In other words, all of them will be phones, and then some.

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