Nokia buys Symbian, turns software over to Symbian Foundation
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 24th 2008 2:01AM
posted Jun 24th 2008 2:01AM
Nokia's been in bed with Symbian for many, many years through the development of its S60 platform -- the world's most populous smartphone platform, dont'cha know -- and they're taking that relationship to its endgame today by announcing that they'll be acquiring the remaining shares of Symbian that they don't already own. Here's where it gets interesting, though: rather than taking Symbian's intellectual private for Nokia's own benefit, the goods will be turned over to the Symbian Foundation, a nonprofit whose sole goal will be the advancement of the Symbian platform in its many flavors. Motorola and Sony Ericsson have signed up to contribute UIQ assets, while NTT DoCoMo (which uses Symbian-based wares in a number of its phones) will be donating code as well.Other Symbian Foundation members include Texas Instruments, Vodafone, Samsung, LG, and AT&T (yep, the same AT&T that currently sells precisely one Symbian-based phone), so things could get interesting. The move clearly seems to be a preemptive strike against Google's Open Handset Alliance, LiMo, and other collaborative efforts forming around the globe with the goal of standardizing smartphone operating systems; the writing was on the wall, and Symbian didn't want to miss the train. Total cash outlay for the move will run Nokia roughly €264 million -- about $410 million in yankee currency.
Update: It's worth noting that the foundation plans to make the entire platform available as open source in the next two years -- "select components" at launch.
Read - Creation of Symbian Foundation
Read - Acquisition of Symbian by Nokia
w00t!!!
This was submitted on Digg before it was posted here.
How dare Engadget?!
Dustin, do you honestly think that any of us care??
/G
And you made sure you got "First Post" there right?
OMG!
nuff said.
This doesn't seem too shocking.
w00t too!!! We're waiting (:
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia Corp is set to boost its stake in UK-based Symbian Ltd, a provider of software for advanced mobile phones, to more than 50 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The move could trigger unease among other major wireless-handset vendors, as many of Nokia's rivals -- including Motorola Inc , Samsung and Sony Ericsson -- rely on Symbian's software platform for so-called smart phones, said the report.
Nokia will announce Tuesday that it is buying Siemens AG's 8.4 percent stake in Symbian to increase its holding to 56.3 percent, said the article, citing people familiar with the matter.
Nokia will pay the German company about $109.4 million for the stake, said the report on the Wall Street Journal's Web site.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/06/24/business/OUKBS-UK-SYMBIAN-NOKIA.php
I don't think the other companies (Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson) would like to be under control from their main competitor Nokia.
Erm...read the press release, will ya?
Why do you re-post what the blog is announcing and talking about? The extra details should be left to the read link and not pasted in the comment section.
Maybe you missed the point where they said they would create the Symbian Foundation and release the code as "open source". Of course, the devil is in the detail, but the whole point about doing that would be precisely to INCREASE the platform's use (across vendors, carriers, etc). Since "Open Source" is a trademark (see opensource.org), the use of the term implies some very specific requirements about access not just to view, but to adopt and modify code.
So, Motorola, SE, Samsung, NTT etc should be generally happy about this. (As should we all.. :)
Actually, they will use the EPL, which is accepted as an "Open Source license" by the OSI and as a "Free license" by the FSF. It's GPL-incompatible, but you wouldn't expect GPL extensions to it, anyway. Of course, software running under an EPL OS can be GPL'd.
Don't you mean the Open Handset Alliance? Or at least, FouNDation?
The perils of typing too fast when big news breaks... thanks!
RIP andoid
Did u mean
Request in Process Android ;)
I mean dead, kaput, finished, history, fail.
Pick the ones you like :P
Open sourcing Symbian just took away the only advantage Android had.
Except open-sourcing Symbian will occur over two years, while the Android SDK is already available and with significant participation/commitment. Over that period, Symbian's current market share will have little effect -- everyone will want to develop for OHA, and if for some reason Android doesn't fly, there's no reason an open-sourced Symbian would fare any better.
Also, NTT/AT&T/Vodafone may be competent in network deployment, and SE/LG/Samsung/Nokia/Motorola may be competent in device design and manufacturing, but they are seriously lacking in software development. It might not look like that right now compared to competitors, but OHA has a potential collaborative power far greater than Symbian (think great mail/IM, music download, streaming video apps and more).
A number of SF members are also in OHA anyway. If anything, this is a graceful way to keep Symbian's current market share stable while allowing its technology to eventually be absorbed into OHA: give Android the next few years to develop a solid market, then open up Symbian and allow developers to take its strengths and freely port them to Android. Really, for SF members, it's better to provide a solid transitional model for Symbian than have two of their own platforms (one open, one closed) that end up competing with each other and with other platforms, severely undermining either's success -- and especially if OHA has a chance at carving a larger market share than Symbian can grow in the long term.
Fine points all of them but what really undermines Android is that it's not actually in the market. Sure we have the SDK and promises and spyshots but now almost a year after it was announced and two years after it's supposedly been in development with manufacturers it looks like we won't have a handset till early 2009 at best.
The main advantage of Android IMO is they're reinventing the mobile phone - and mobile phone development. I've tried developing for Symbian in the past and it was a nightmare just getting started. Too many language choices, many of which were out of date, too many APIs across devices, too complicated to get things running on your phone. Too much legacy cruft. Android streamlines all this, and directly targets a large number of developers.
"Motorola and Sony Ericsson have signed up to contribute UIQ assets..."
Damn, my first thought when I saw the headline was "maybe that will finally kill off UIQ". No such luck.
Another world-class British company gobbled up...shame.
I agree, However why does Nokia have to buy out the other partners, Why don't they just turn their stakes over to the foundation.
So the outdated usability nightmare that is Series60 joins forces with the outdated usability nightmare that is UIQ. Sounds like a winner.
USA market that is using BB phones and WM are complaining that S60 is horrible to use....
Plus you rarely hear that S60 is awkward to use. Most are complaining about the eye candy where S60 3th edition fp2 did give some of that, but i'm sure 5th edition that comes out this year will be ready to hold it's position with 55% of smart phone market or more.
I use a Nokia E51. The hardware is mostly good (except for the tiny sliver of a button that your're supposed to navigate with), but the software is a mess.
- Settings are scattered all over the place
- You can set a standard data connection for Symbian apps, but not Java ones and you can't set a global preference for 3G and trusted WiFi if available. Instead it displays a full list of connection options including provider presets for MMS and streaming everytime you fire up Opera Mini or the Gmail app. I can set the native apps like the built in browser to use 3G all the time, but then I can't switch to WiFi if it's available.
- The email app is awful. Fortunately Google's Gmail app is very good.
- Why the hell isn't there a timer app? Who put a manager for zip archives higher on the list of priorities?
- The UI is butt ugly and looks extremely dated. Even the icons are bad, surely Nokia can afford to hire a designer?
I think it's pretty telling that the best app on my phone is Google's Gmail app.
I got N78 about 3 weeks ago and i'm not going back to WM ever. S60 really is miles away of WM when it comes usability, but by no means iphone like. S60 offer much more than OS X thought.
I believe N78 is the only fp2 device out there currently? The eye-candy is there, but again not iphone like.
People who don't like S60 currently need to remember that the 3th edition is living it last days and will look outdated now when 5th edition takes it place.
This is a great news and hopefully we will see devices soon. I'm not sure if i'm happy with the fact that this probally makes Symbian more of a monopoly than before, but it's good thing that it will be open.
Being an owner of the N76 and the N82 (wife's phone) - the N76 is S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and I think the N82 is also... is there a chance for us to both upgrade our phones to S60 5th edition when it comes out? What about S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2?
@ henrrik
You are not limited to just the software that's on the phone.
You can download a timer app if you look for one.
You can also download themes with better icons. There are lots of talented theme makers if you look around.
If you managed to download Gmail and Opera Mini, you can find other apps to make your phone better.
this is stellar to go open source with it. best dev always comes from collaboration. 2 thumbs up! or 3 depending what planet your from.
Sounds like the iPhone will be an even better buy! just needs to compete in the console marked. The iGame machine will be next gen graphics with multitouch!
This is really really great news. Seems S60 will stay by a big margin as the number one for long time still.
After this we might see Windows like monopoly with Symbian as the top 2-5 top mobile phone manufacturer have had their problems with OS have no decided to join Nokia's platform.
Thought as they say it will be open so that's a good thing even if Symbian will get even more hold of smart phone business than now.
Android still have a change if they make it right on the first time, but WM will have it much much harder even if they didnt really shine on market share before, but now with 5 biggest mobile phone manufacturer up with shared Symbian it will be impossible to them to get hold.
On the Symbian Foundation: too late.
And why exactly? Because they only build upon something that has 2/3 of the market?
Sometimes I really wonder if people think at all before posting...
This article shocked me until I noticed it said Symbian, not Sybian.
Question for the financial people reading Engadget - how does this whole transaction look on financial statements exactly? just out of curiosity..
From here:
http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1230415
"The net cash outlay from Nokia to purchase the approximately 52% of Symbian Limited shares it does not already own will be approximately EUR 264 million."
So Nokia as a company "loses" $264 mil since they are buying something and turning it over to the Symbian foundation - but they are not really "losing" anything as over time they will benefit from this transaction.
So how does this relate to monkeys?
I question the openness of this arrangement. It says in the press release for the announcement for the creation of the Symbian Foundation that the code will be licensed under the EPL (Eclipse Public License). Which, among other things, according to wikipedia allows:
"the developers can keep the improvements or additions as proprietary"
I call Shenanigans on the openness of the Symbian Foundation. There are some big dogs in there and I think they are just trying to save face by saying "look we are open too".
Only time will tell for sure but I'm betting that they will simply keep the good stuff proprietary.
This move will certainly stagnate WinMo growth. Apple has really shaken up the industry and this is a direct result of Apples groundbreaking iPhone and its top of its class platform development program.
No, it's not.
I would add more sentences to this comment, gladly, but in the end it would be a much longer version of "no, it's not"
(See what I did there? ;-)
I like Symbian OS and I think this will be a welcome addition to the Open OS movement... It doesnt matter if android or symbian win as long as im not stuck with a phone that I have to hack and void my warranty just to be able to take full advantage of my hardware and software.
wow!
poor Android
WOW!
poor Android
srry i couldn't see my other post
Although I'm not a big fan, Im glad to see Symbian being offered open source to all phone manufacturers. This, Along with Apple's OSX, Android and the LiMo foundation is really going to obsolete Windows mobile, if it wasn't already. And thank god! NO ONE should have to suffer through the hideous crap that is windows mobile.
Android will eventually be great, but Google needs to get the carriers to lay off with their own proprietary "services" and create as universal a platform as possible. I think it was a BAD idea that Google lets the carriers heavily modify the platform --- that may end up being the down fall of it. MS doesn't let carriers like Verizon put their stupid V-cast shit on Windows mobile, so why should Android? It's not as if they can/will stop manufacturers from selling Android Phones...
Welcome to the new globalization
"the world's most populous smartphone platform, dont'cha know"
Somebody needs to learn the difference between 'populous' and
'popular'. They certainly don't mean the same thing, and 'populous'
is out of place in this sentence.