The Long Tail - July'08

The Symbian Foundation: open source, and open for debate.

Nokia shook up the mobile industry in late June when it announced the purchase of the remainder of mobile OS maker Symbian to establish a new platform called the Symbian Foundation, which will go open source in two years.

MobileOpportunity
http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/

Blogger: Michael Mace

The post: The end of the dream
What it says: Mace says Nokia's acquisition of Symbian "marks the end of a dream" of the creation of a new independent OS to be the mobile equivalent of Microsoft.

"There's a big body of academic research on why Silicon Valley has been successful in sustaining itself, and part of the reason is that the Valley recycles companies very efficiently. Failing companies do not last long, but in the process the brightest people and ideas are rarely lost, they are just shuffled around into new configurations," he says.

Giga Om
http://gigaom.com/

Blogger: Om Malik

The post: Symbian, iPhone & the New Mobile Reality
What it says: Malik gives a very detailed and long post on why Nokia bought Symbian and what it means for the mobile industry. He's not too optimistic regarding Nokia's commitment to the deal.

"In terms of market share, Symbian has long been propped up by Nokia. The problem is, Nokia is backing a confusing array of platforms, including Linux. Same goes for the [Symbian] foundation's other members. And that makes me wonder how long their loyalty to this platform is going to last. Will they change their commitments once they're faced with the needs of their own, individual businesses? Will this be enough to get developers to commit to the platform?" he says.

O'Reilly Radar
http://radar.oreilly.com/

Blogger: Nat Torkington

The post: Nokia to buy and open source Symbian
What it says: Torkington reckons the Symbian purchase is Nokia's response to Google's Android which is also an open source mobile operating system. He says both Google and Nokia are applications companies, with similar assets, and are trying to build a mobile services platform.

"First, it's defensive (nobody wants someone else to "own the handset" and thus have a competitive advantage). But secondly, it's aggressive. They want handset manufacturers to be able to slap Android/Symbian onto the handsets, no royalties payable, you're welcome, and then ship those handsets to the carriers," he says.

StartupMeme
http://startupmeme.com/

Blogger: Sardar Mohkim Khan

The post: Nokia buys Symbian: is it taking part in the Mobile battle?
What it says: Mohkim Khan thinks Nokia's move will now spark a closely fought three-way battle between giants Nokia, Google and Apple.

"Whatever the challenges are, I personally think the challenge amongst the three: iPhone, Symbian and Android, would be a tough one, but none would end up loosing anything [or] gain much on its competitor. The only name that comes into mind loosing big time is Windows CE, with its 'Ah we are aloof and not open-ended' strategy," he says.