Symbian vs Android

264m euros ($410m; £209m) is the price Nokia are paying for the remainder of UK-based Symbian as they position themselves to produce a competitor to Google’s planned Android operating system.  Sony Ericsson, Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens have all agreed to sell their shares, with Samsung also expected to accept the offer.

According to Symbian, takeover is a “a fundamental step” towards the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, which will bring together Nokia, AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone in order to collaborate on a new, royalty-free open software platform for mobile phones.

Symbian Chief Executive Nigel Clifford:

“We’re freeing up innovation – this is epoch-making.  Nothing like this has been put into the open-source community before.”

A change in the way software is produced?  That’s the aim, but as Geoff Blaber, an analyst with CCS Insight, says:

“Can the new entity really be open when Nokia has such a vested interest? This may be the stated goal, but in practice it might be more difficult to achieve. We’ll have to scrutinise the fine print of the intellectual property rights and articles of association.”

Whatever the outcome, with a current 7% of the mobile phones market now using Symbian, the open source alternative to Apple’s iPhone OS will have a very long way to go to make up ground once it is released…

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