CEO Ed Colligan told Computer Business Review Online that there are two reasons for the company's decision. First, it does not want to support a third operating system in addition to the Palm OS and Windows Mobile. Also, Colligan acknowledged to the publication that he was uneasy with the fact that the largest shareholder in Symbian is a competitor -- Nokia.
"Nokia owns Symbian," Colligan told the publication, although the Finnish vendor actually owns only about 48 percent of the U.K. mobile platform developer. While Symbian has a minimal market share of the U.S. smartphone market, it is the worldwide leader.
Colligan noted that Palm considered the Symbian platform but chose to expand from its Palm OS base with Windows Mobile instead. He noted that some cellular operators and enterprises requested the Windows Mobile Treo and, for now, that's the extent of the company's plans for adding platforms.
"We could not afford to support three operating systems," Colligan told Computer Business Review Online.