Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Symbian goes open source: any more proofs?
Today Nokia has announced that they have acquired the remaining of Symbian and, most importantly, that it is going to put the code in open source.A few years ago, when I was saying "Mobile Open Source" the best answer I was getting was: "What?". Followed by a "Are you crazy? You cannot put Open Source together with Mobile! Mobile is the most closed environment on the planet!!".
Well, let me smile for a second... Symbian is going open source. Android is open source. Mobile Linux is growing everywhere (and it is open source...). Nokia has bought Trolltech and now they are pushing forward with a clear open source strategy.
The two companies left behind are Microsoft and Apple. Ok, they are big, but not in mobile (yet, it is a long long road). And they might never get big in mobile if they do not go open source as well. The direction is clear. If you are HTC and you are offering Android (and soon Symbian), what are you going to tell Microsoft about the cost of Windows Mobile? You know the answer...
Now people will start realizing that the next step in mobile open source is the application layer. I am sitting on top of the pile with Funambol and I cannot hold back a smile :-)
What a day for mobile open source!
Posted by Fabrizio at 10:48
7 Comments:
Could you write few blog entries about mobile OSS business models? I would be very interested to hear your view.
Comment Posted at 11:23
Fabrizio said...
I did a few, but I will do more in the future. It is a promise ;-)
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 14:00
Liron Tocker said...
Hopefully this means we'll see a symbian version of Funambol soon enough :)
Comment Posted at 13:23
Fabrizio said...
You can bet on that, it is already on its way (BTW, our JavaME client works great on Symbian as well).
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 13:27
Liron Tocker said...
@fabrizio
On Symbian, the J2ME client works well per-se, however it does not integrate at all with the OS, which makes it cumbersome, especially since J2ME is an extreme resource and battery hog. A good integration would allow features similar to Nokia's native app, allowing for an icon to show up on the active standby when a new mail arrives, or allowing the adding of attachments through the gallery.
Seven have done a great job with integrating their push mail client into symbian, check it out at http://www.seven.com
Excited to see what you guys come up with!
Comment Posted at 09:36
Fabrizio said...
Hi Liron,
that is exactly what we have. We have already delivered to a customer but the code needs some polishing to be open sourced. Stay tuned...
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 10:14
Liron Tocker said...
@fabrizio
Thanks for your reply! I'll make sure to be one of the first in line to test it when it comes out :)
