Software developers are flocking to create applications for the Symbian mobile computing platform, the company's chief executive Colly Myers said today.

During the last eight months, the number of registered Symbian software developers has grown from 1200 to 20,000, Myers said at the opening of the first Symbian Developer Conference in Silicon Valley yesterday. He told the audience to expect one billion mobile phone users by 2003.

The Symbian platform will drive the evolution of smartphones and communicators, said Myers, adding that the special needs of wireless revolve around wireless application protocol, Bluetooth and Java standards.

Symbian, a joint venture that includes Psion, Motorola, Matsushita, Ericsson and Nokia, develops wireless products for the next generation of smart mobile phones and internet-ready handheld computers.

Symbian has been developing a data-synchronisation interface and protocol that would make is simpler for handheld applications running the company's Epoc operating system to exchange data with servers. It plans to add an improved web interface for devices running Epoc.

Myers said the upcoming application program interface and protocol will create a standard synchronisation technique that developers can use as they build new applications for Epoc devices. The protocol will connect to local PC applications and also to remote server applications over a wired or wireless link.

Symbian, which already licenses the Java Virtual Machine from Sun, is also looking at the possibility of employing Sun's Jini technology.

"We're about to see a revolution in wireless," said Myers.