Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Wednesday 7 November 2007, 1:00 PM
Symbian - the whiff of sour grapes?
Symbian certainly has reason to celebrate at the moment over pretty positive results which stem largely from a cut they made a while back in licensing fees.
However, its biggest buddy, Nokia, is strongly considering an entry into Google's Open Handset Alliance - the manufacturer had been conspicuous in its absence from the membership list announced on Monday. If it does do the Android dance, then Symbian will be in big trouble.
Consider these quotes from Symbian's John Forsyth in that BBC interview: "Search and a mobile phone platform are completely different things. It's costly, arduous and at times a deeply unsexy job of supporting customers day by day in launching phones. That's something there's very little experience of in Google's environment. If you are a serious phone maker and you are asked to bet your handsets on somebody, you would want to bet on someone with a track record of delivery and support."
Ummm.... well, firstly, Google does a hell of a lot more than search these days, as Forsyth well knows. And guess what, it's pretty good at many of those things. Secondly, Google isn't going to be launching handsets - that'll be Motorola, Samsung and, perhaps, Nokia. The OHA will be working out and supporting the platform on an industry-wide basis.
As for Forsyth's suggestion that developers won't be interested in writing for Google's platform - well, the word that springs to mind here would relegate this post to "not safe for work".
Methinks the Symbian doth protest too much. They must be deeply rattled.
PreviousComments on this post
David,
Great notes on the Symbian reaction. It looks like we’re about to see a great new school versus old school show down in wireless. Google may be the new kid moving into the mobile community, but they are the one to beat. Many are calling this the “three horse race” already with good reason. We are in relatively new territory with regard to the mobile OS environment and let’s face it, the market share has yet to be officially determined.
The move by Google to go open-source via Android was bold, but not stupid by any means. I see many unique security vulnerabilities as a result of the move to open-source, but none that can not be managed by mobile security providers. Symbian seemingly has dominance by today’s standards but Google is innovative enough to take long term control. On the other hand, I by no means expect Microsoft to sit by idle as Google takes over the market they have been trying to crack for years.
It is hard to debate that the gates have not been thrown open in the “three horse race” of mobile OS. What’s not to love about mobile?
Cheers,
Eric Everson
Founder, MyMobiSafe.com
