In a weekend press conference, chief managing director of Sharp Masasi Matsumoto announced that they will begin using Symbian OS in new phones, and they will attempt to raise global shipments to 50%, currently Sharp keeps 70% of cellular phones manufactured in Japan.

Matsumoto said, “Cellular phones featuring the Symbian OS would be easier to distribute throughout the world, and it would be easier to ‘make a differentiation.’ While we do not intended to have all of our products utilize the Symbian OS, we would like to gradually increase the percentage of our high-functionality products featuring the Symbian OS.”