Audio processing specialist Dolby Laboratories has announced its membership of the Symbian Platinum Partner program, in a move that will see the surround sound company bring its high-quality audio technology to cellphones based on the Symbian OS.  The deal opens up the possibility for handsets to offer either Dolby’s true digital surround or one of their “pseudo surround” technologies that may be better suited to a cellphone’s limited space for speakers.

“Symbian OS is a robust, open mobile operating system which is widely used around the world by some of the leading handset vendors.  Being part of the Platinum Partner Program allows Dolby to work closely with Symbian to ensure that consumers can quickly and easily enjoy the Dolby Mobile audio on Symbian smartphones” Max Taylor, Marketing Director, Mobile Business, Dolby Laboratories

“Dolby Mobile enables handset manufacturers, operators, and developers to deliver rich audio experiences to handsets, applications, and content services, offering consumers enhanced audio quality on their mobile phones.  We welcome Dolby to the Symbian Platinum Partner Program and look forward to the further uptake of Dolby’s audio solutions to the ever-growing Symbian ecosystem” Jerry Panagrossi, Vice President and General Manager of North American Operations, Symbian

The first handsets using Dolby technology are already available in Japan; however neither Symbian nor Dolby revealed which, if any, manufacturers had earmarked the system for devices outside of that country.