Move to counter threats from Google and Apple?
Nokia today announced the €264 (£210) million purchase of the 52 percent of shares it does not already own in Southwark-based Symbian Limited, which licenses an open platform for mobile devices, from partners Sony Ericsson, Panasonic Mobile and Siemens, with Samsung to follow.
The consolidation clears the way for the creation of a non-profit Symbian Foundation with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone. A white paper (PDF) introducing the foundation can be accessed here.
The Foundation will merge Nokia’s S60, Ericsson/Motorola’s touch screen UIQ and the MOAP(S) for 3G versions of the Symbian OS into one open mobile software platform, open to all developers from day one. Symbian source code will be made available in stages over the next two years under Eclipse Public License 1.0.
The move could be viewed as a response to the threat from Google’s Android platform and its Open Handset Alliance, which has signed up more than 30 partners across the industry, and from Apple’s new iPhone G3.
The announcement comes on the heels of news that the promised summer launch of handsets based on Android has been postponed. The inclusion of UIQ adds substance to Nokia’s statement last week that it would produce a rival for the iPhone before the end of the year.
A survey of 384 wireless application developers worldwide by Evans Data Corporation found that Microsoft’s .Net Compact Framework (43 percent) and Java Micro Edition (42) currently lead the way in preference, followed by Windows Mobile 6.0 (31), Linux (25), Nokia Series 80 (22), Symbian (20), Windows Mobile 5.0 (19), Java (18), Palm (15), RIM (14), Mac OS 10 (8) and Android (7).
Fifty six percent of respondents said they target Nokia devices, followed by Motorola (33) and Sony Ericsson (29).
Given that the iPhone 3G has not been released yet, and the delay in producing an Android-based handset, the low preference for newcomers Apple and Google is not remarkable. Perhaps more noteworthy is that both have pinned hopes for a massive increase in market share on AT&T, yet the US telecoms giant is a founder member of the new Symbian Foundation.
Press releases:
Nokia to acquire Symbian Limited to enable evolution of the leading open mobile platform
Mobile leaders to unify the Symbian software platform and set the future of mobile free
