ABI Research Comments: Nokia to Acquire Symbian and Go "Open"

(Business News & Technology News, 25 Jun 2008)

Nokia announced that it will purchase the remaining stock it doesn't own in Symbian and then migrate the solution to an "Open" platform.

ABI Research Vice President Stuart Carlaw said that there has been financial pressure on Nokia to move in this direction at some point. "The sheer economics of the number of devices it ships with the OS versus the value it gets out of its historic shareholding clearly indicated that such a 'rescue' was inevitable at some point."

He said that the real spice in this announcement is that Nokia is stating that it will offer the OS in a more "open" way. "Perhaps this is an admission that the pressure from the Linux industry is really forcing Nokia and Symbian to change their game. Questions remain as to whether the solution will be truly open and what the cost of a Symbian Foundation membership will be," adds Carlaw.

"There are also questions on where the up and coming mobile Linux platforms would be today had Nokia taken care of this purchase several years ago," says Research Director Kevin Burden. "It's very possible that Nokia will eventually position the Symbian platform for mid-tier devices with another platform powering its high-end devices—a position that Sony Ericsson has already taken."

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