Nokia looking to buy the rest of Symbian, open up the OS
Posted: Jun 24th 2008 1:06PM by Chase Higgins Nokia is looking to unify the Symbian OS by buying the rest of the consortium that regulates the software. This would mean that Nokia would own all of the shares of Symbian, including the popular flavors of S60 and UIQ. Many manufacturers use S60, including Nokia, who is the largest user of the S60 software. UIQ is mainly used by Sony Ericsson, and between the two flavors, they dominate the Symbian market. Until now, the two flavors of Symbian have commanded royalty and licensing fees to be used, but Nokia would change that. If Nokia gains control of the Symbian consortium, they will open it up, and allow the software to be used royalty free. Google is doing the same thing with Android later this year, and it is assumed Nokia is opening up to cope with the looming threat of Android.