LONDON, United Kingdom – 29 April 2008 – Symbian Limited, the market leader in open operating systems for mobile phones, today launched the ‘Symbian Ready’ technology validation program.

Symbian Ready ensures that Symbian customers, the market leading handset manufacturers, benefit from the highest quality ecosystem solutions and that the ecosystem partners have the opportunity to showcase the quality of its solutions to key decision makers in the mobile space.

Symbian Ready helps partners to make the most of Symbian OS technologies and develop solutions in the most efficient way. Partners joining the program will have the opportunity to team up with Symbian to showcase the quality of their solution to handset manufacturers through a variety of co-marketing initiatives such as the Symbian Ready Directory and promotion on Symbian Developer Network.

Symbian Ready is an umbrella program, comprising two strands at launch – Symbian Ready AUTO and Symbian Ready VERO.

Symbian Ready AUTO consists of Symbian publishing best practice criteria for specific technology areas which partners then use to self-validate their solutions. In this strand, the partner completes and submits a compliance specification document to Symbian and the solution is then jointly promoted as Symbian Ready AUTO.

Symbian Ready VERO meanwhile sees Symbian publishing detailed test specifications for functional areas, and then verifying the partner’s solution. Once Symbian is satisfied that the solution has satisfied the required criteria, the partner is able to use the Symbian Ready logo to jointly promote it as Symbian Ready VERO.

Mike Whittingham, VP, Ecosystem Development, Symbian, comments: “Quality, simplicity and scalability were the drivers when developing Symbian Ready. For the benefit of our customers and partners, it’s vital that we promote best practice and high quality products in the ecosystem. We’re delighted with the response we’ve had so far.”

Symbian Ready has already gained support from partners in the following areas:

FreeWay, the new communications architecture in Symbian OS, will be used in Symbian OS v9.5 and onwards and will be required to be adopted by partner solutions using networking capabilities. As such, the first technology program available for compliance will be Symbian Ready AUTO for FreeWay with Cicero Networks as the first partner to join the new program.

“The Symbian Ready program provides a highly structured and efficient process for developing carrier-grade trusted applications for Symbian OS,” said Ross Brennan, CEO, Cicero Networks. “Cicero Networks is delighted to have qualified for its CiceroPhone VCC client as the first Symbian Ready AUTO for Freeway application. The new FreeWay architecture delivers the optimisation and efficiencies needed for the new generation of converged rich media applications and services that operators are planning to launch.”

NAND is a non-volatile solid state memory capable of holding and storing data even when power is turned off. NAND is an excellent storage solution for many applications where mobility, power use, speed, and size are key factors. Many Symbian OS phones use NAND Flash technology. Micron – a leading developer of memory technology – is the first partner to enrol in the Symbian Ready VERO for NAND Flash program.

"The Symbian Ready VERO program provides our customers with an assurance that our products have been thoroughly tested with the latest versions of Symbian OS, and so reduces their time to market," said Eric Spanneut, Director of Mobile Memory Marketing for Micron. "Micron is delighted that our NAND flash technology is the first to be certified through the Symbian Ready VERO program, bringing quality storage solutions to Symbian licensees.”

For more information on Symbian Ready, go to www.symbian.com/partner.