Nokia’s Plan to Acquire Trolltech Raises Concerns for Symbian
Posted Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:42:34 EST by Shailendra Pandey
Nokia has announced plans to acquire Trolltech stating the acquisition will enable it to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business. However, if we look beyond this initial statement, it is becoming very clear that Nokia is getting serious on Linux, signaling more challenging times ahead for Symbian. Currently, Nokia only offers Linux based MIDs (mobile internet devices) and even though it has not expressed any specific intentions so far, this acquisition is likely to lead to Nokia introducing smartphones and other handsets based on Linux in the coming years. For Symbian, it will be a big setback and their market-share of the OS market will rapidly decline if Nokia starts offering Linux devices.
Nokia claims that acquiring Trolltech will allow it to enable richer set of internet services on handsets based on its S60 platform. Further, it will also be able to develop applications for multiple platforms from a single source code base, as well as bring improvements in handset user interface and time-to-market. However, it is unlikely that Symbian will be totally relieved by Nokia’s statements that it views Trolltech’s application platforms as complimentary to Symbian. The acquisition only indicates one thing in certain terms - it substantially raises Nokia’s ability to introduce Linux devices, which would mean loss of royalty revenues for Symbian.
Nokia claims that acquiring Trolltech will allow it to enable richer set of internet services on handsets based on its S60 platform. Further, it will also be able to develop applications for multiple platforms from a single source code base, as well as bring improvements in handset user interface and time-to-market. However, it is unlikely that Symbian will be totally relieved by Nokia’s statements that it views Trolltech’s application platforms as complimentary to Symbian. The acquisition only indicates one thing in certain terms - it substantially raises Nokia’s ability to introduce Linux devices, which would mean loss of royalty revenues for Symbian.