Symbian in decline?
When we spoke to Chandhok again, we moved on to the topic of Symbian itself. Noting that the Symbian Exchange and Exposition 2009 - the event at which we met - was hardly a hive of activity, we asked if he was concerned that he was joining a community in decline.
"Symbian has a strong position in the marketplace and a powerful proposition," said Chandhok. "The pie is still growing but the dynamics are unclear," he added, in reference to the smartphone market in general.
We then asked why a company that is primarily associated with the design of hardware should devote so many resources to the software side of things. "It comes back to usage," said Chandhok. "We want commercial quality devices for our customers and we want to give platforms to our customers to innovate."
To conclude, we asked about the competition. Firstly, does he consider Apple - which has snapped up so much market share with the iPhone and is not exactly known for sharing its technologies with everyone else - a competitor? "Apple is not a competitive threat to Qualcomm - we'd prefer them to become a customer," said Chandhok.
What about Intel and its plans to take on the smartphone market? "We certainly see that we're going to bump up against Intel, but we think it has less to do with instruction set," said Chandhok, before concluding "Do I think we have a good, strong position? Absolutely."
