A diverse family of weirdos

On the verge of the new millenium the need for a truly portable and independent mobile operating system was evident. Sure, there was Microsoft with its market dominance and aggressive licensing policy on Pocket PC, and there was also a single-tasking Palm OS, barely suitable for mobile phones. And thus, out of Psion’s cradle, a new operating system governed by a consortium of Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola was born, changing its name along the way from EPOC to Symbian. There were many flavours, all incompatible across the board, but eventually it paved the road for what we know and love these days: the smartphone.