The future of Symbian

Nokia, the Finland mobile giant, has bought Symbian, the most popular smartphone software. Earlier, it was 48% stake holder in Symbian, now it has bought the remaining shares with $410 million. Now, Nokia is planning to make Symbian open source. Currently, companies using Symbian are paying $4 per phone. After Symbian becomes open source there be no charges. Information Week reports:

For businesses, the move raises several critical issues. On the upside, it's possible companies will wind up with cheaper phones--the Symbian OS today costs manufacturers about $4, while Microsoft charges about $15 for Windows Mobile per phone. A free mobile OS could ramp up price competition. On the downside, IT departments could face a tougher battle trying to contain the number of smartphone platforms they're asked to support, if open source leads to more variations of the Symbian OS.

Currently, 67% of the total smartphones produced around the world use Symbian. However, Symbian is not widely used in lower-end phones. In the USA, Microsoft, Apple, and RIM are dominating the scene. If Symbian wants to win this war of mobile operating system then it would have to be rapidly developed because smartphone makers are exploring all the possible ways to include more functions in their little gadgets. Truly, Nokia has put great pressure on Microsoft, Google and other mobile phone operating system producers but to win the battle it has to be very much innovative with Symbian.

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Information Week

Nokia is buying Symbian shares and making Symbian free for all

Recently, Finland mobile giant, Nokia, bought out its fellow shareholders in Symbian, the UK based handset Software Company. Nokia is now also making Symbian loyalty free. Market analysts believe that Nokia is doing it to outsmart its rivals and this is going to seriously hurt Microsoft, Google and other major mobile software producers. Currently, Symbian is used in two-thirds of the total smart phone handsets with computer like capabilities around the world and 6% of the total mobile phones around the world. Other major mobile softwares are: Android from Google; Apple’s iPhone, Windows Mobile from Microsoft; and BlackBerry of RIM. Telegraph.co.uk reports:

Nokia was quick yesterday to dismiss the idea that its moves were simply a reaction to its rivals. "This is a market-making move and looking at it as a response to anything would not do justice to what we are doing," said Kai Oistamo, executive vice-president of Nokia.

But analysts were in little doubt. "This move's a shrewd response to growing threats from other providers of mobile phone software," said Geoff Blaber of industry watchers CCS Insight.

Mr Blaber made particular reference to the "open-source" LiMo Foundation as well as Google's Android, which also promises to offer handset makers an operating system at virtually zero cost.

Nokia is also launching Symbian Foundation, a non-profit organization that will unite the Symbian with three user interfaces.

Currently, Windows Mobile from Microsoft is controlling 13% of the smart phone market. Microsoft charges from $8-$15 per phone from the handset makers and Symbian charges $4.10. As Nokia is going to make Symbian free for all, according to Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst, this puts a lot of pressure on Microsoft as they are trying to make their place in the mobile phone market.

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Telegraph.co.uk

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