To enable the secure transmission of critical business data to mobile workers, Oracle today announced that Oracle® Database Lite 10g Release 2 will support Symbian OSTM, the global open industry standard operating system installed on more than 39 million data-enabled mobile phones.

Oracle's support for Symbian OS will deliver the many benefits of Oracle's grid technology, including continuous data and application availability, from the enterprise to mobile workers. Oracle is a Symbian Platinum Partner and will distribute its mobile database alongside Symbian OS, enabling interoperability of data-enabled mobile phones with mobile networks, applications and services. Together, the companies will be able to extend enterprise applications, such as customer relationship management and sales force automation to the growing number of Symbian OS-based smartphones worldwide.

"Symbian's partnership with Oracle is delivering on the promise of workforce mobile enablement - improving business user productivity both in, and away, from the office," said Jerry Panagrossi, vice president of U.S. operations, Symbian. "The combination of Oracle's market leading mobile database technology with Symbian's industry leading mobile handset operating system, Symbian OS, assures that enterprise mobile workers will have access to all of their mission-critical data when they need it."

Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 2 for Symbian OS will enable enterprise and consumer applications to have data access with high performance and complex data manipulations. Together, Oracle and Symbian are working with leading mobile network operators and phone manufacturers, including NTT DoCoMo, Motorola and Nokia to deliver an integrated solution. Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 2 is already available on NTT's DoCoMo Business FOMA® M1000 environment, Motorola's A1000 and phones based on both of Nokia's Developer platforms, Series 60 and Series 80 such as Nokia's 9300 and 6630. Oracle is also working with independent software vendors (ISVs) such as NID-IS, Softbrain, and TENIK to deliver applications and tools required by businesses to support their mobile initiatives.

"NTT DoCoMo welcomes Oracle's commitment to the mobile technology and industry," said Kiyoshi Tokuhiro, Managing Director, Ubiquitous Services Department, Products & Services Division, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. "By utilizing DoCoMo's Business FOMA environment, Oracle takes full advantage of development and validation to adopt Oracle Database Lite 10g for Symbian OS, enabling people to access all of their critical data whenever they need it. We believe we are in a position to roll-out development of new, value add services that will positively impact our enterprise customers and their businesses."

Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 2, which became generally available in July 2005, boasts significant enhancements that make it easier to create mobile schemas, deliver high availability options and leverage the Microsoft .NET development platform. Relying on the Oracle Grid Computing infrastructure, the mobile database provides customers with a secure and reliable technology architecture that enables increased performance and incremental scalability to support thousands of concurrent users.

"Handset vendors and carriers are always looking for new services to maintain and increase revenue generating opportunities," said Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president of Database Server Technologies, Oracle. "Oracle Database Lite provides the perfect high performance, reliable and secure database to manage handset data to support these new services."

Mobile technologies are no longer simply the domain of sales force and field service workers, increasingly adopted by industries such as defense, national security, health care and public safety. With organizations entrusting their critical data to mobile technology, centralized management, security and application functionality have become essential as applications are rolled out to tens of thousands of mobile users.

About Oracle Database Lite 10g

Oracle Database Lite 10g is the first database to extend the power of grid computing to the mobile workforce. Oracle Database Lite 10g is a complete and integrated solution for developing and deploying vital database applications for mobile and embedded environments and delivers features common in mission-critical systems to mobile and embedded devices. Enabling persistent access to critical information and applications without requiring continuous connectivity to back-end enterprise systems, Oracle Database Lite 10g enables users to increase efficiency, productivity and responsiveness of mobile workforces, reduces costs, and improves customer satisfaction.