brighthand: "Is Nokia Actually Going To Take Over Symbian?"

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://brighthand.com/article/Is_Nokia_Taking_Over_Symbian' target='_blank'>http://brighthand.com/article/Is_Nokia_Taking_Over_Symbian</a><br /><br /></div>"The Symbian OS isn't like Microsoft's operating system for smart phones or the Palm OS. Two handsets that both run the Symbian OS can have radically different user interfaces and can't necessarily run the same applications. Last fall, a Gartner vice president used his keynote at his company's symposium to criticize Symbian for its lack of standardization and predict that this will eventually allow Microsoft to control the smart phone market. Nokia's Ollila has said that his company and the other Symbian partners are working hard on standardization, but it can be very difficult and time consuming to get six companies to agree."<br /><br />Ed Hardy has written a thought-provoking article discussing the issue of Nokia gobbling up Symbian - worth a read!

[ShivShanks]

Ed Hardy has written a thought-provoking article discussing the issue of Nokia gobbling up Symbian - worth a read!

And I'm thinking whats up with the big photo of himself he has put up in the article? :o Is he trying to impress some girls? :D

[TANKERx]

Some interesting points of note from the article;

That the other members are trying to stop Nokia's move shows that they still care.

Giving one company a kind of 'administrative control' could be a good thing for creating a level playing field and since Nokia has (and continues to) involve competitors in creating checks and balances, I think that Nokia is not the most secretive and cunning company mentioned on this forum.

The incompatibility between devices is something that everybody likes to beat everybody else with regardless of the fact that it affects them. I know that software has had to be tweaked with a 'x.1' version for the latest Series60 phone, but the same applies for Microsoft where software has been released as a 'x.1' version which was only compatible with the SPV is now compatible with another MS Spartphone so don't play that card (and this cross-platform "share the .EXE because no changes have to be made" stuff I keep hearing about Windows Mobile is nonsense, or we'd be seeing far more application on the Smartphone than we are, and we wouldn't hear developers saying for months that they're "working on a Smartphone version" of their PocketPC stuff).

Anyway, this is all FUD so I'm not too worried. As long as my 9210 and MPx200 work, the suits can go whistle in their conferences.

[rbrome]

"The Symbian OS isn't like Microsoft's operating system for smart phones or the Palm OS. Two handsets that both run the Symbian OS can have radically different user interfaces and can't necessarily run the same applications. Last fall, a Gartner vice president used his keynote at his company's symposium to criticize Symbian for its lack of standardization and predict that this will eventually allow Microsoft to control the smart phone market. Nokia's Ollila has said that his company and the other Symbian partners are working hard on standardization, but it can be very difficult and time consuming to get six companies to agree."

That's crap. Ed Hardy and the Gartner VP are both very misinformed on this subject.

Symbian is exactly like Microsoft in this regard. Symbian is NOT the equivalent of Windows Mobile for Smartphones (or Pocket PC). Symbian is more like Windows CE - the underlying OS. Series 60 (based on Symbian) is like Windows Mobile for Smartphones (based on Windows CE), and UIQ (based on Symbain) is like Windows Mobile for Pocket PC (based on Windows CE). Then, just like the random flavors of Symbian out there, (like some new DoCoMo phones,) Windows CE also has its random, less popular incarnations.

Are you really going to tell me that any and all Windows CE-based apps will run on any and all Windows CE-based devices? Of course not. The apps need tweaking, and the user interfaces can be wildly different. Same exact story for Symbian.

[TANKERx]

Maybe we should all beware of technology writers called Ed - they're all dodgy ;-)