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Nokia acquires Symbian: so what?
,----[ Quote ]
| So, will Nokia’s acquisition of Symbian make much of a difference to the
| overall market? Consiering that the mobile phone market still has the same
| set of OS alternatives…
|
| * LiMO
| * Android
| * Windows Mobile
| * Symbian
|
| …only two things have changed:
|
| 1. Nokia now has complete control of Symbian
| 2. Symbian’s code will soon be available under an open source license
|
| Both of these primarily benefit Nokia, and seem unlikely to convince Nokia’s
| mobile phone competitors that aren’t already using Symbian to adopt Symbian,
| rather than using one or another form of mobile Linux.
`----
http://www.deviceguru.com/2008/07/03/nokia-buys-symbian-so-what/
Here is the real issue:
Developers see good, bad side in royalty-free Symbian
,----[ Quote ]
| Greg Wilkins, an Australian open source advocate and expert, said Nokia's
| move is meant to stir the market "to get developers to create for their
| software" and therefore making it better.
|
| Wilkins believes that Nokia is not fully embracing the open source software
| philosophy because this move will eventually "funnel into Nokia."
`----
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20080702-146060/Developers-see-good-bad-side-in-royalty-free-Symbian
Days ago:
Nokia’s Open Source Response: The Symbian Q&A
,----[ Quote ]
| Q: What does this mean for Nokia’s interests in open source generally and
| Linux and Qt specifically?
|
| A: On a general basis, it’s certainly true that Nokia now has spent liberally
| on open source and will be for the foreseeable future heavily vested in it.
| What’s less clear, however, is how the different investments - both internal
| and M&A - will compete or not with each other. As discussed at the time of
| the Trolltech acquisition, the decision to support two competing frameworks
| in GTK (Maemo, Nokia N770, N800, N810) and Qt was curious. As was its
| decision to embrace the Debian foundation for the Maemo project based
| devices, frankly, given its long standing commitment to the competing Symbian
| platform.
|
| No less complex is this acquisition. Symbian is, as mentioned, a massive
| market presence in the mobile space at present. But Linux has shown excellent
| strength of late in smaller, sub-PC class devices such as the Eee, and Nokia
| seemed to acknowledge this in the N770 and its successors. Then consider the
| Linux foundation upon which Android will be resting, and even the recently
| released OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner, and the Linux mobile story becomes that
| much more compelling. Linux, it would seem, is here to stay as a mobile
| platform.
|
| [...]
|
| Q: How about the compatibility of the selected license?
|
| A: A few of the inquiries we’ve seen incoming have asked whether the EPL is
| compatible with the GPL - the license that governs, among other projects -
| Linux. The answer to that question is no, it is not. So Symbian assets will
| not be permitted to be legally recombined with Linux code for their mobile
| efforts.
`----
http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2008/06/26/nokia_symbian/
Nokia to buy and open source Symbian
,----[ Quote ]
| There’s a huge difference between Linux and the handsets, though, and I think
| it’s an important one. Linux’s license (the GPL) prevents people who ship
| Linux from including proprietary extensions. If you ship a modification to
| Linux, you must release the source. This means there are no privileged
| applications (the way Microsoft’s apps used libraries that third-party apps
| couldn’t), no proprietary competitive advantages in the kernel, and so the
| rate of improvement of every Linux distribution is maximized.
|
| [...]
|
| Both Google and Nokia, however, have deliberately chosen licenses that don’t
| encourage that…Proprietary competitive hardware and software can be put into
| any Android or Nokia phone at the appropriate level of the stack. I think
| this will slow down the success of their platforms and means neither will
| unlock the true potential of an open mobile platform. I believe true
| demilitarized openness is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for open
| mobile platform success.
`----
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/06/nokia-to-buy-and-open-source-s.html
Ten LiMo phones this month?
,----[ Quote ]
| Forbes has published an interview with LiMo Foundation executive director
| Morgan Gillis. The LiMo chief speaks out on Nokia's acquisition of Symbian,
| competition with Android, the fold-in of the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS)
| Forum, and a projected 10 new LiMo handsets to be announced this month.
`----
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2262055029.html
How Nokia's Symbian Move Helps Google
,----[ Quote ]
| While phones running Google's Android mobile platform will compete for sales
| against Nokia's smartphones running Symbian, the fact that Nokia plans to
| take Symbian open source could actually benefit both companies. By increasing
| the adoption of open source, the Nokia move further opens up the market for
| all open source platforms.
`----
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/63651.html
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