Quote:
Originally Posted by virain
So here's dilemma - Free OS with paid support, or free support with Paid OS. And remember, "There's no such thing as a FREE lunch".
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Is support free for Windows Mobile? I can't imagine that it is totally free. If it was, there would be nothing to stop companies demanding an infinite amount of support from Microsoft.
Just say Microsoft does offer completely free support. I think the free support vs. free licensing argument comes down to economies of scale. If you're a small manufacturer, just starting on the path to smartphone-dom, you'll need a lot of support and probably won't ship many units. So you're better off going with the option that gives you free support.
However, if you're a big and experienced player then you're better off paying a few million for support (or build up a support team internally) and reaping the benefits of no license fees. The more experienced you are with the software, the less support you need. If Nokia moved its entire portfolio over to Symbian tomorrow, they would save around $5 million
a day in licensing fees. That's a lot of money. I'm sure a lot more than having to fund most of the OS development themselves.
It's no surprise that all five of the biggest phone manufacturers are on the board of Symbian Foundation. Maybe the open source nature might attract a few of the smaller players to experiment with it too.