What does the Nokia-Microsoft deal say about Symbian
This week’s deal between Microsoft and Nokia has been widely reported; you can see some of the analysis at Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Core to the announcement is the development of enterprise apps on the Symbian based E-Series handsets. It is easy to speculate that the vision is for these products to become the ultimate in business devices. Combine that with the ability for these companies to market and sell to enterprise customers and there is good reason to believe that this goal is very achievable.
The deal also represents a massive endorsement of the Symbian platform and shows how it can enable companies to cooperate to bring applications and services to businesses and consumers. Through this partnership we are anticipating features and solutions to flow through to Symbian so that others who invest in the platform can also take advantage. This is very much how we envisage the Symbian foundation to work; where the value of the whole ecosystem can be increased, while partners around us can create specific value for themselves.
Symbian’s large installed base of handsets, as well as continued traction in the smartphone market (see this week’s Gartner reports for Q2 and Q1 09 where Nokia increased market share at a greater rate than RIM, Apple and HTC) means Symbian is a natural platform for companies with service offerings to target.
Whilst both companies point to this as a direct challenge to RIM, the deal also demonstrates that the mobile ecosystem is maturing and companies with multiple product offerings will choose to compete in some areas and cooperate in others. Microsoft is not alone in identifying Symbian as an extremely important platform for reaching consumers. Google also has a wide range of applications that support their services available on Symbian. It’s often too easy to portray the industry as Google vs Microsoft vs Nokia vs RIM etc. Instead, we believe, that by offering an open OS and mobile development hub for the entire value chain, the Symbian foundation can offer all companies further reach into a global market of devices and services.
source
The deal also represents a massive endorsement of the Symbian platform and shows how it can enable companies to cooperate to bring applications and services to businesses and consumers. Through this partnership we are anticipating features and solutions to flow through to Symbian so that others who invest in the platform can also take advantage. This is very much how we envisage the Symbian foundation to work; where the value of the whole ecosystem can be increased, while partners around us can create specific value for themselves.
Symbian’s large installed base of handsets, as well as continued traction in the smartphone market (see this week’s Gartner reports for Q2 and Q1 09 where Nokia increased market share at a greater rate than RIM, Apple and HTC) means Symbian is a natural platform for companies with service offerings to target.
Whilst both companies point to this as a direct challenge to RIM, the deal also demonstrates that the mobile ecosystem is maturing and companies with multiple product offerings will choose to compete in some areas and cooperate in others. Microsoft is not alone in identifying Symbian as an extremely important platform for reaching consumers. Google also has a wide range of applications that support their services available on Symbian. It’s often too easy to portray the industry as Google vs Microsoft vs Nokia vs RIM etc. Instead, we believe, that by offering an open OS and mobile development hub for the entire value chain, the Symbian foundation can offer all companies further reach into a global market of devices and services.
source
Posts
No comments: