May 31, 2001 – The battle of the little browser is heating up.

Symbian, the U.K. smart-phone OS developer, has dropped Microsoft's Internet Explorer in favor of the Opera 5.0 browser.

The Opera browser will now become the default browser for all development designs for upcoming Symbian handheld devices. The company said the choice was based on Opera's small-screen optimization software and other advanced features.

According to Symbian, Nokia's 9210 Communicator will be the first handheld to use a full complement of Symbian's software.

The move by Symbian comes on the heels of last week's widely published report that Microsoft is courting Nokia. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Redmond is hoping to strengthen its relationship with the Finnish giant to help boost Microsoft's share in the wireless platform market.

In other related news, Psion, which is a majority shareholder in Symbian, along with Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Panasonic, announced that it had formed a new wireless network services company.

Called Signa, the unit will focus on installation and management services for the burgeoning Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) market. It will utilize Psion's Teklogix device-based inventory-tracking technology as part of its overall WLAN strategy.

The WLAN market worldwide is one of the fastest IT markets, with some analysts predicting sales to exceed $4.5 billion by 2005.