Nokia enters Open Source OS Race - Microsoft next?

Tuesday, June 24. 2008

Nokia enters Open Source OS Race - Microsoft next?

Planet Mobile's strategic response to Google's Android initiative - from ReadWriteWeb:

Nokia isn't finished with its acquisition spree just yet. Tonight the Finnish company announced a plan to acquire the 52 per cent of Symbian it doesn't already own and make the platform open source.

They had to - ever since Google announced Android, and Apple entered with iPhone, the clock was ticking on closed operating systems in the Tower of Babel that is Mobile OS. The economics of the industry requires a small number of coherent OS to develop applications on if it is to be viable vs the miniaturising PC's.

Plus of course, Google and Apple are not point players, they run ened to end Ecosystems, which double trumps a massively fractured point solution which is what the Planet Mobile OS game now is. RWW nails it here:

But at the same time, this could also be driven by Nokia wanting to have more control over both the hardware and software side of its business, similar to how Apple has created its own operating system for the iPhone.

Google, Nokia, Apple's hats are in the ring now. I wonder what Microsoft will do in this game, given that they are also swooping down from above with the new generation of small PC's. Prediction is risky, especially about the future, but an Open Source OS would not be an impossible dream, especially if it interworked closely with one's PC.

Posted by Alan Patrick in User Devices at 12:20 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0) | Top Exits (0)

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"Prediction is risky, especially about the future"

As opposed to prediction of the past, which is generally 100% accurate.

#1 Patrick on 2008-06-24 12:42 (Reply)

You would be surprised - historical revison is rich seam to mine in academia

#2 alan p on 2008-06-24 12:49 (Reply)

Let's not forget RIM, who've been taking huge bites out of the smartphone market.

These days people don't buy Symbian handsets on purpose (for the most part), most people who actually own one have no idea that it's a smartphone.

Nokia need to do something to get the platform moving again, and this is their gambit. It may work well given the look of Symbian 10, but they're going to have to make development a whole lot easier to topple or even compete with the iPhone (and even the Blackberry).

#3 Brian on 2008-06-25 03:52 (Reply)

@ Brian - I have a presentation that shows how Nokia was outmanouvred with SMS, email and audio on mobile. Their DNA is just not in doing "New"

#4 alan p on 2008-06-25 09:12 (Reply)

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