Headlines - Nokia buys out partners in Symbian consortium ? opens it up

[HEXUS]

UK-based company?s mobile phone operating system to become open source mobile platform.

Read more.

[Funkstar]

Ericsson/Motorola’s touch screen UIQ and the MOAP(S) for 3G versions of the Symbian OS into one open mobile software platform

So do you think we'll actually see Symbian apps that can be run on multiple manufacturers hardware?

There isn't any point having a standard OS, if the interface used on different hadsets is not compatible.

[Scott B]

That seems to be the plan.

[Funkstar]

Would be good if they actually managed it

It's interesting to see the number of phones now using Smartphone OSs even when they aren't actually smartphones (or at least aren't marketed as Smarphones). The N95 is a good example, uses Symbian instead of the normal Nokia OS. I think there is a good number of SE handsets that are the same.

With Symbian being Open Source there will be less of a barrier to manufacturers using that instead of their normal OS as they won't need to pay the licensing fees or the development costs for their own proprietary software.

[TheAnimus]

bollocks will they!

They need a device to stand out from the others on the shelf. This is why the series 60 platform (which was originally speced with handsets on the public market over 5 years ago now iirc) has been butchered so much.

[Lucio]

I think it says a lot about my mind as I read that, no less than 3 times, and got "Sybian" each time....

I wondered if Nokia had seen far too many mobile phone clips on amatuer sites and thus had gotten from really really strange ideas.....