I have been deeply involved for nearly 20 years in the development and commercial deployment of what can be called "second personal brains" - initially, handheld electronic personal organisers, with the London-based company Psion; and then smartphones, with Symbian, a spin-out of the software team from Psion. I was a founding director of Symbian, and oversaw the architectural development of Symbian OS, an operating system that is already used in more than 70 million advanced programmable mobile phones worldwide. At various times, I have led virtually all the deparments in Symbian, including software development, technical consulting, partnering, and research. As EVP of Research, I am currently responsible for understanding and guiding Symbian's response to disruptive trends in technology, business, and society. My first book was published in July 2005: "Symbian for software leaders - principles of successful smartphone development projects".