Smartphone operating system developer SavaJe Technologies is expected this month to announce agreements with operators that will offer handset buyers and developers a new platform option. The startup firm is backed by venture funding from Vodafone and Orange.

In February, Nokia agreed to purchase Psion's stake in Symbian - a move that would give it a majority stake in the smartphone platform. This led many pundits to question the future of that operating system. SavaJe's announcement will provide a new alternative, alongside Microsoft, PalmSource and Linux.

The SavaJe platform is based on Java, has security standards built in and supports multitasking, web browsing and over-the-air application provisioning.

Operators can create their own user interfaces for selected markets but the underlying software remains the same. SavaJe believes that its focus on telecoms carriers will make it more attractive than the other major efforts.

"All of these [rival] offerings stem from a PDA environment where most of the requests have come from the equipment manufacturers rather than the operators," said Bob Gilkes, SavaJe chief executive. "The operators have had to take what they could rather than what they wanted. They have begun to create their own branding and segmentation and in doing so they run into a battle with the providers of the operating systems."

SavaJe's strategy has been to develop what it says is a Java-based platform that does not suffer the performance lags that have often afflicted Java.

A formal announcement of operator partners is expected this month, perhaps at the Cebit exhibition in Hanover that runs from 18 March. SavaJe-based handsets are expected to be commercially available this year.

"SavaJe is interesting," said Julian Tolley of analyst Durlacher. "I think [smartphone competition] will come down to a battle between Nokia and Vodafone. Vodafone clearly wants to differentiate itself."