Nokia to buy Symbian, but still no changes in Mobility

Nokia, which had long owned a substantial portion of Symbian, the company behind the popular proprietary mobile operating system of the same name, announced Tuesday that it would be buying the rest of the company, 52% for approximately $410 million. In addition to purchasing Symbian, Nokia will place the code in the hands of a new vendor-neutral organization: The Symbian Foundation.

Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will clearly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. Hopefully, this will drive the development of new and forceful Web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers. According to sources at Nokia, code will be released to the public for the first time in either the last quarter of 2008 or the first quarter of 2009. All of Symbian OS and its development tools will be made available by 2010. In short, Symbian and its major interfaces are well on their way to becoming a completely open source operating system and development platform. So far, good news.

In my opinion, all Nokia is doing by acquiring Symbian is to make a defensive play, because even as Symbian has grown into the dominant supplier of smartphone operating systems, it is still being challenged by several new strong players. For instance, Google challenged the commercial/business model, stating that its Android platform has reduced the cost of software to almost zero. Also, the LiMo Foundation, a consortium working on a Linux-based operating system for mobile devices, has strong support from network operators, which have been attracted by its governance model. And, of course, no one can ignore Apple and the iPhone as the company has raised the bar from a technical perspective and consumer’s attraction. But, where is Microsoft in this chess game? I just don’t think they might be able to affect the mobile device market. Certainly, Microsoft may go after BlackBerry powerhouse Research In Motion, but at this point, it’s more likely to see RIM/Google or RIM/Nokia, especially with Microsoft still trying to deal with Yahoo.

In summary, this acquisition will solidify Nokia's presence on the mobile market despite anything that Google, LiMo, or Apple can do. However, let’s not forget that it wasn't so long ago that Apple had no mobile phone market share, and betting against Google or Linux has not been a winning proposition in any market lately. More to come for sure…

iPhone’s launch countdown

Apple Inc.'s imminent iPhone is quickly rising in the ranks of popularity before it has even hit store shelves. It is almost exceptional that we know so little about a high-profile mobile phone this close to its launch. For now, we know that the 4GB model is priced at $499 and the 8GB model at $599. However, the true price of a mobile phone is a combination of the device's price, the applications it offers and the price of the service contract.

For instance, an unlocked expensive phone that features GPS support and VoIP applications can save considerable sums over a period of two years. That's because its users can switch freely to low-cost mobile service providers, substitute it for a dedicated GPS device and use WiFi for long-distance calls. Of course, there are lots of unknowns. How well do consumers factor in long-term cost and substitution? How much do they care about mobile VoIP's cost-saving potential and the ability to switch carriers? At this point, there are no right answers for these questions, just speculations.

Apple and AT&T, the iPhone's exclusive distributor, have battled over many issues in their deal. In fact, some of Apple's demands were so unusual that they drove away Verizon, the original choice for the iPhone carrier. Thus, AT&T became the only alternative in the U.S., as Sprint-Nextel and T-Mobile would be too small for a major launch like this. This gave AT&T genuine leverage over Apple and that has likely resulted in some restrictions that may turn out to be controversial.

So, what’s the real interest and demand for the iPhone? M:Metrics, which tracks wireless trends, found that iPhone has gained the attention of 56 percent of British and 64 percent of U.S. mobile phone users who are aware of the new touch screen phone. The survey also said that 19 million Americans reported a strong interest in buying the iPhone, and two-thirds of about 11,000 polled are subscribers on other carrier networks. This is an early indication that AT&T's strategy to use the device to attract customers from competitors could pay off. Let’s wait until June 29th to see how this story plays out.