Nokia buys Symbian and poses serious threat to Android

So, Nokia has finally made the big move. It has taken control of Symbian, which in itself is big news, and on top of it has announced that Symbian software will be available for free. Talk about making news…

The open source software – which will be an integration of Symbian, Nokia Series 60, the MOAP platform of Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, the UIQ standard by Motorola and Sony Ericsson – will be controlled by the Symbian Foundation, which is a non-profit organization.

In more ways than one, it looks like the perfect move. After all, Nokia and Psion created Symbian about a decade back and Symbian is still the number one software on smartphones and advanced multimedia handsets. With around 60% market share and an ability to reach over 200 million mobile users, Symbian is undoubtedly the market leader when it comes to mobile phone software. However, things are about to change.

Apple made a splashing entry into the market with its iPhone last year and Google is getting ready to launch its own mobile software, Android. What this means to Symbian, in layman terms, is there’s going to be competition. A lot of it. Especially, Google is hell bent on making Android successful at any cost and it could most likely rattle the dominance of Symbian. So, Nokia has taken the plunge and has made its intentions clear. To retain the number one spot in the market and to stop the dominance of Apple, Google, and to a lesser extent Microsoft and Research In Motion.

Here’s the most important thing about this move. Nokia stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars by making this open source software free of cost. Nokia earns several hundreds of millions every year through software licensing revenues alone and making it an open-source-free-for-all would mean a huge cut in its revenue stream. Still, Nokia has made the move and this has made everyone take notice.

Experts already predict that this move will rattle Google considerably. Google is planning to take the market by storm by offering free, sophisticated mobile phone software in the form of Android and now it will have serious trouble contending with Symbian, which is not only hugely famous and established, but also free of cost.

Well; how many times do I pat my back? I predicted a Nokia vs. Google scenario quite some time back and you can bet your bottom dollar that it has come true. What do you say?

Categories: Google, Nokia.

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Will the music industry go mobile?

After newspapers, it seems it’s the turn of the music industry to go mobile. I mean, let’s face it. The music industry is not what it used to be and CD sales have dropped considerably. The industry has stagnated to say the least and going mobile to reinvent itself seems to be the only option left. Thankfully, some artists have already realized that and have taken the next step.

A few months back, we saw Madonna sign a deal with Vodafone wherein Vodafone users were able to listen to the album Hard Candy before it was even released in the market. Similarly, earlier this month, British pop sensation Natasha Bedingfield signed a deal with Verizon and will headline a Verizon VIP tour. Verizon users will have exclusive access to Natasha’s albums and users who download ringtones and other such content will get free tickets to her concert and other such promotional items. Usher Raymond has signed a similar deal with Sony Ericsson which will be the primary sponsor for Usher’s musical tour which is scheduled later this year. Though AT&T is yet to sign such deals with musicians, it has already signed deals with music websites such as Napster and eMusic.

The future, everyone says, is mobile. The dipping sales of compact discs and the alarming growth rate of pirated discs have made musicians take some serious decisions regarding the future and some musicians have already set the precedent. Now, it remains to be seen how quickly others can adapt to this new age medium. What do you say?

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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