23 July 2008

Will Google and Symbian ever work hand-in-hand?

Last week I wrote about Symbian intention to expand its collaboration with Google Inc and now I just a quite interesting article over at Beta News which trying to answer the question: Will Google and Symbian ever work hand-in-hand?

Is there any real chance now that Symbian and Google will start working more closely together, given the planned development of a new Symbian software platform that will compete with Google's Android?

Although Symbian now uses Google applications on its existing mobile OS, any future collaboration at the platform level will need to be addressed by the Nokia-led Symbian Foundation, say Symbian officials.

"Symbian currently collaborates with Google as an ISV, as Google develops popular applications for Symbian OS, such as Google Maps, YouTube and Gmail," said a Symbian spokesperson, in an e-mail to BetaNews.

"Symbian is not currently cooperating with Google at the operating systemlevel. The Symbian Foundation will be responsible for determining the future development of the platform when it begins operations, expected during [the first half of] 2009," according to the spokesperson.

As previously reported in BetaNews, major Symbian shareholder Nokia unexpectedly announced in June that it wants to buy all of the remaining shares in Symbian.

Subject to regulatory approval, Nokia's plan also calls for turning the shares over to the Symbian Foundation, which will then produce a platform combining the three platforms now used on Nokia phones -- UIQ, a platform based on the Symbian OS. NTT DoCoMo's MOAP, and Nokia's own S60 -- into a common framework. Other founding members of the Symbian Foundation include NTT, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola.