By Open Sourcing Symbian, Nokia Kicks Off the Mobile Age I WIRED
`
`DYLAN TWENEY GEAR 06.24.08 og·oo PM
`
`BY OPEN SOURCING
`SYMBIAN, NOKIA
`KICKS OFF THE
`MOBILE AGE
`
`EXHIBIT
`
`THE MOBILE SOFTWARE age is here.
`
`Symbian co-founder Nokia announced Monday night that it is
`buying the 52 percent of the software maker that it doesn't already
`own and releasing its mobile operating system under an open
`source license.
`
`With that move, Symbian joins two other major platforms - the
`Google-backed Android operating system and Apple's OS X iPhone
`- that give programmers tools for creating and deploying software
`for smartphones.
`
`The Symbian OS dominates the world market, with about 60
`percent of the installed base among smartphones. According to
`Nokia, more than 200 million phones currently in use worldwide
`are running Symbian software. But Symbian trails in the United
`States, where Research in Motion, Palm, Windows Mobile - and
`now the iPhone - are the major players.
`
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`By Open Sourcing Symbian, Nokia Kicks Off the Mobile Age I WIRED
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`Nokia uses Symbian software across its range of mobile devices,
`primarily with the extremely popular S6o interface. Other handset
`companies also use some variety of the Symbian operating system,
`including Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTI DoCoMo.
`
`"Nokia could, if they found inside the corporation the resolve to do
`so, come out with the definitive open platform," said Bruce Perens,
`an open source advocate and CEO of Kilo boot. "They would have a
`platform of the type we haven't seen since the original Palm. When
`that was dominant, there were 16,000 applications available to
`install. The question is, can they find the corporate resolve?"
`
`The prospect of thousands of mobile apps - instead of the few
`dozen typically available through most wireless carriers - is
`something new in the wireless world. And the 6 million iPhones
`sold to date show that mobile users like having open, unfettered
`access to web applications and online content.
`
`In short, what matters to handsets now is not so much features,
`graphics chips and innovative interfaces - though those do help.
`What's critical is an easy-to-use development platform that enables
`programmers to create a wide range of software quickly and easily,
`so that they can give consumers the content and the software they
`demand.
`
`Android (whose first handsets are expected later this year) is clearly
`aimed at that goal. And while it's not open source, Apple has built a
`complete developer ecosystem around the iPhone, including
`everything from development tools to a store (which will open next
`month) for selling finished applications.
`
`That's a significant shift from just a year ago, when programming
`tools for handsets were specialized and difficult to use, and carriers
`and handset manufacturers alike kept a tight rein on mobile
`application deployment.
`
`To support the new open source project, Nokia is establishing the
`
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`By Open Sourcing Symbian, Nokia Kicks Off the Mobile Age I WIRED
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`Symbian Foundation, a collective of hardware and software
`companies that have pledged to donate code and resources to
`Symbian's development. Phone makers Motorola and Sony
`Ericsson are on board, contributing software from their UIQ
`project, a touchscreen interface for Symbian. Japanese carrier N1T
`DoCoMo has pledged support and is contributing its Symbian
`interface, MOAP(S). Other supporters include AT&T, Samsung and
`Texas Instruments.
`
`"Establishing the foundation is one of the biggest contributions to
`an open community ever made," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of
`Nokia, somewhat hyperbolically. But it is true that Nokia has, at
`one stroke, created an enormous open-source ecosystem, thanks to
`the huge number of Symbian phones already in use.
`
`Nokia's move is a defensive one, of course. The Symbian
`Foundation plan is strikingly similar to Google's plan with the Open
`Handset Alliance, a collective of industry players who have come
`together to build and nurture the Android open source mobile
`operating system. On the carrier side, Google has NTT DoCoMo,
`Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile on board. On the hardware side, HTC,
`LG, Motorola and Samsung have signed on to support Android.
`
`Nokia says it is even taking a Google-like approach to rolling out
`the open source code. It will release components of its code under
`an open source license at first, with the full OS to follow "over the
`next two years." Right now, Nokia says, it intends to release
`Symbian under the Eclipse Public License (EPL) 1.0.
`
`But not everyone is convinced that open source operating systems
`are the way to go.
`
`"With the success of Apple's and RIM's models, we would have
`thought traditional handset vendors would develop and maintain
`similar proprietary OS models," said Tavis McCourt, a Morgan
`Keegan analyst. "We view this move as a long-term positive for the
`smartphone vendors that own their own OS (RIM, Apple and, soon,
`
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`By Open Sourcing Symbian, Nokia Kicks Off the Mobile Age I WIRED
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`Palm)."
`
`And it's still too soon to tell which mobile platform will win out.
`Symbian has the advantage of a large installed base; Android will
`benefit from the pure innovation seen when developers take a "sky's
`the limit" approach to building a new OS. And Apple provides a
`complete, turnkey approach to software sales via its iTunes App
`Store, which may appeal to consumers.
`
`One thing's for sure: The floodgates are opening, and the coming
`year will see an explosion of mobile software for a wide range of
`smartphones.
`
`Additional reporting by Betsy Schiffman.
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`By Open Sourcing Symbian, Nokia Kicks Off the Mobile Age I WIRED
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`By Open Sourcing Symbian, Nokia Kicks Off the Mobile Age I WIRED
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`By Open Sourcing Symbian, Nokia Kicks Off the Mobile Age I WIRED
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`By Open Sourcing Symbian, Nokia Kicks Off the Mobile Age I WIRED
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