Nokia Buys Symbian, Possible Google Android Delays

[MacRumors]

Seemingly in a response to growing competition from Apple and Google, Nokia is buying out Symbian Ltd and will open its mobile operating system for royalty free use. Nokia will pay $410 million to buy the remaining 52% share of the company that it does not already own and establish the Symbian Foundation:

"This is a significant milestone in our software strategy" said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia. "Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers."

Symbian Ltd was originally formed in partnership with Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Psion in 1998. Since then, Symbian's mobile operating system has grown to power two thirds of all existing smart phones and 6% of all phones worldwide.

The move seems to clearly be in response to Google's Android initiative which similarly offers an open platform for upcoming mobile phones. Yesterday, a report claimed that we would not see the first Android phones until the 4th quarter of this year, due to carrier delays. As well, Apple's plans to launch their App Store and promoting their new mobile development platform likely also played a factor in Nokia's decision.

Apple will be launching the App Store alongside the iPhone 2.0 Firmware update in "early July".

Article Link

 

[Zwhaler]

Well hey, as always, competeition is good. Looks like Nokia is afraid of Apple a little bit?

 

[Shagrat]

Well it would seem that everybody is running a little scared of the iPhone.

Remember Steve Balmer on the iPhone?

And this guy works for... who was it again?

 

[jons]

Well hey, as always, competeition is good. Looks like Nokia is afraid of Apple a little bit?

Haha, I think the whole cell phone industry is a bit on it's head these days.

 

[retroneo]

Good response from Nokia.

With both Android and Symbian S60 being royalty-free, Windows Mobile is dead.

Exciting times for the mobile industry!

 

[NewSc2]

Nice to see the rest of the industry isn't sitting on its hands waiting for Apple to make its next move. Let's hope this means better software for all!

 

[aLoC]

I love how he says it will "drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications" but doesn't say how. It's like he thinks all you have to do is open-source something and then "by magic" all the apps will appear. Where is the iTunes-style app distribution platform? Where is the XCode IDE?

He is going down totally the wrong path, forget so-called "strategic" moves like this and just watch what apps are successful on the iPhone and write their own versions in house for their phone.

 

[Project]

Too bad Symbian is a crock of ****, as is its development tools.

But ultimately a smart move. Thats now Google, Microsoft and Nokia all having seemingly the same model in order to become the Windows of mobile phones.

 

[emotion]

Makes for interesting watching, the phone industry at the moment.

Shame Android is delayed, though not entirely unexpected. I think this is shaping up to be a two horse race right now. Apple vs. Android. Two very different software models. I'm hoping that Android will provide stiff competition for Apple to keep their game sharp.

 

[blueskyrocket]

Only Steve Jobs knows

Only SJ knows how much of a lead Apple has over the others. He knows how long it took for Apple to develop the platform, and how much it cost and he had access to the best interface / design team going, coupled together with their new found economic model (on going monthly/annual fees) and Apples top down tight integration and synergy with the rest of their products Nokia has got to do something, and it wont be building a PC to compete with Apple.

Does anybody else think that with the new lower price points of the iPhone, that Apple has left room for higher specced iPhones at the $399 & $499 price points. Are we to get video iChat, a 3.2 MP camera, real bluetooth and 32/64GB capacities for the new iPhone Air (tic)


Nokia would need to make it Open to have any hope. I think Apple has the lead as they have a modern OS that can be shoehorned into these and future devices. Symbian and the MS alternative are too old to take advantage of emerging markets. Only Googles Android has a chance, but it runs the potential of being compromised by too many variants by too many manufacturers and too many carriers interests. Plus it will be ad (read free) driven. You'll pay real money for Apple services, but it is refreshing to use Apples services without a mish mash of competing advertisers trying to get me to spend money I don't have, cause I gave it all to Apple.... ha!

BSR

 

[emotion]

Does anybody else think that with the new lower price points of the iPhone, that Apple has left room for higher specced iPhones at the $399 & $499 price points. Are we to get video iChat, a 3.2 MP camera, real bluetooth and 32/64GB capacities for the new iPhone Air (tic)

Definitely room for that. I agree.

Only Googles Android has a chance, but it runs the potential of being compromised by too many variants by too many manufacturers and too many carriers interests. Plus it will be ad (read free) driven.

I'm not sure it's completely clear yet how that will work. Their current model doesn't stop me using Googlemail for example.

 

[Project]

Does anybody else think that with the new lower price points of the iPhone, that Apple has left room for higher specced iPhones at the $399 & $499 price points. Are we to get video iChat, a 3.2 MP camera, real bluetooth and 32/64GB capacities for the new iPhone Air (tic)

Is there really room? How many other phones do you see at $499 with a two year contract?

 

[emotion]

Is there really room? How many other phones do you see at $499 with a two year contract?

I don't think of the iPhone as just a phone. It's a communicator. I'd pay £300 instead of £159 (for the new 16GB) for a high end version.

I paid 270 for this iPhone1 on launch.

 

[iPave]

I don't get it

I don't get it. How is Nokia going to benefit of giving symbian for free for other manufacturers.

 

[BornAgainMac]

A tricorder for $499 plus 2 year contract would be nice.

 

[emotion]

I don't get it. How is Nokia going to benefit of giving symbian for free for other manufacturers.

Have a read of this and get back to us:

The Cathedral and the Bazaar - Eric S. Raymond
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_3/raymond/

 

[Project]

I don't think of the iPhone as just a phone. It's a communicator. I'd pay £300 instead of £159 (for the new 16GB) for a high end version.

I paid 270 for this iPhone1 on launch.

I paid the same.

But that doesn't change the fact that its a phone competing against other phones (or communicators if you want), that aren't priced at £270 with an 18 month contract. And most people *wouldn't* pay £269 + a long contract for a phone.

Apple is very deliberate with its pricing. Its going to remain like this now with hardware revisions going forward. 32GB probably in time for Xmas. Stuff like video and A2DP are software solutions and will hopefully added in time. But not as a means to introduce a higher price point. The $199/$299 is still high end for the mobile market.

 

[emotion]

I paid the same.

But that doesn't change the fact that its a phone competing against other phones (or communicators if you want), that aren't priced at £270 with an 18 month contract. And most people *wouldn't* pay £269 + a long contract for a phone.

Apple is very deliberate with its pricing. Its going to remain like this now with hardware revisions going forward. 32GB probably in time for Xmas. Stuff like video and A2DP are software solutions and will hopefully added in time. But not as a means to introduce a higher price point. The $199/$299 is still high end for the mobile market.

I understand what you're saying but there's still a market for the higher end. They've addressed the midrange now. The low-end is too hard to fight.

Most people I know baulk at contracts. That's Nokia/SE's domain.

In terms of hardware, I think you could be right on the time line though I'm hoping for less bulk in 6 months. I've not felt the new one but I think the old iPhone is a little on the lardy side.

 

[Zzzoom]

competition is good

I welcome the increased attention to cell phone software. For too many years, the consumers had to deal with tedious and/or slow GUIs.

 

[Project]

I understand what you're saying but there's still a market for the higher end. They've addressed the midrange now. The low-end is too hard to fight.

Most people I know baulk at contracts. That's Nokia/SE's domain.

In terms of hardware, I think you could be right on the time line though I'm hoping for less bulk in 6 months. I've not felt the new one but I think the old iPhone is a little on the lardy side.

Without the contract though you are looking at £400+.

I don't see how its mid range. To me it works like this

Low end - MOTOKRZ

Mid - SE W910/K850, N81

High end - iPhone, N96, Omnia

 

[sjo]

Nokia would need to make it Open to have any hope. I think Apple has the lead as they have a modern OS that can be shoehorned into these and future devices. Symbian and the MS alternative are too old to take advantage of emerging markets. Only Googles Android has a chance, but it runs the potential of being compromised by too many variants by too many manufacturers and too many carriers interests. Plus it will be ad (read free) driven. You'll pay real money for Apple services, but it is refreshing to use Apples services without a mish mash of competing advertisers trying to get me to spend money I don't have, cause I gave it all to Apple.... ha!

BSR

cool theory, but it's really apple who's playing catch up here. despite all the hype, iphone has only succeeded in the us, in europe it was a flop. bringing new distributors is nice and all, but given the market share they managed to gain in the uk, germany and france, the iphone is absolutely no threat to nokia.

this move has been in the works for a long time and it makes sense for nokia & symbian regardless of the recents percieved competition from apple & google.

 

[xert]

It's worth a mention that companies that are selling their Symbian shares to Nokia will be donating codes of their Symbian platforms to the new foundation as well. There will be no S60/UIQ/MOAP in their current forms in the future.

Members of the new Symbian Foundation include Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, NTT Docomo, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, Samsung, LG, AT&T and so on.

 

[ruutiveijari]

Lets not forget that Nokia also bought Trolltech a short time ago. Trolltech originally made the QTopia aka Qt operating system, a Linux-based OS for smartphones. And of course S60 Touch has been under developement a few years now, even before the iPhone was even announced. First phones utilizing it should be coming out later this year.

Interesting times.

 

[JonasLondon]

What flop are you talking about?!

cool theory, but it's really apple who's playing catch up here. despite all the hype, iphone has only succeeded in the us, in europe it was a flop. bringing new distributors is nice and all, but given the market share they managed to gain in the uk, germany and france, the iphone is absolutely no threat to nokia.

this move has been in the works for a long time and it makes sense for nokia & symbian regardless of the recents percieved competition from apple & google.

Excuse me? Ever used the DLR or tubes at rush hour in London? Get on a train and tell me you can not spot at least 4 iPhones in a wagon, and I might say you're right. Seems like half of the city workers buy themselves a private iPhone because it rocks, and only drag along their company Blackberry because they happened to sign a two-year contract with the Vodaphone Business unit or similar.

Of course the adoption of the iPhone in rural Texas might be higher than in High Wycombe outside London, but in London the iPhone is everywhere....

The reason why it is performing more poorly in Germany is due to silly contracts by T-Mobile. But they've had silly contracts before the iPhone came out. Let it roam free with O2 and some other carriers in Germany and see the sales go through the roof. I.e. wait till 2009, and it's far from a flop in Europe.

Software Version 2.0 and the App Store will change this business totally. And yes, I've been in the Sybian and Nokia E61 "business joke phone" territory and regret that phase.

 

[tiiim]

Without the contract though you are looking at £400+.

I don't see how its mid range. To me it works like this

Low end - MOTOKRZ

Mid - SE W910/K850, N81

High end - iPhone, N96, Omnia

I agree, in the UK most phones are free on a contract. I think the current iPhone will be its high end model, it makes more sense for apple to introduce a lower range model. Smaller device at least but wouldnt know what features they could drop though as in the UK most of Apple's feature (accept gps) are standard these days. The mobile phone market is very competive, and with the n96 coming out soon going to very challenging here.