Symbian to be another open mobile platform

The already crowded open source mobile phone software market just got more so as Nokia has announced plans to open up the Symbian operating system. Symbian currently has the biggest installed base of any mobile OS, which makes this announcement somewhat more surprising—market leaders generally do not radically change their successful methods. What it means for the various Linux mobile phone initiatives is unclear, but it certainly shakes things up a bit.

Nokia, along with many of the biggest players in the mobile phone market, has formed the Symbian Foundation to provide its members with the OS on a royalty-free basis. Several other components are being donated to the foundation as well, to create a complete platform for mobile applications. The plan is for all of the code to be released using the Eclipse Public License over the next two years.

In order to own the code, Nokia is purchasing the 52% of Symbian Limited that it does not currently own for more than $400 million. This will allow Nokia to donate Symbian, along with its S60 smartphone platform, which runs atop Symbian, to the foundation. Sony Ericsson and Motorola will donate their UIQ user interface layer, while NTT DoCoMo will donate its Mobile Oriented Application Platform (MOAP).

Nearly two dozen companies have come together to form the foundation, including handset makers, mobile carriers, and chip manufacturers. Interestingly, there is substantial overlap between Symbian Foundation members and those of the Open Handset Alliance—the umbrella organization for Google's Android effort—and the LiMo Foundation. Whether this reflects impatience with the pace of Android/LiMo development or just an effort to hedge their bets remains to be seen.

Membership in the foundation is open to all who are willing to pay the $1500 annual membership fee. That fee will allow the use of all of the components that make up the Symbian platform on a royalty-free basis. Any developers that wish to create software for the platform need not join as there will be a developer program available at no charge. The foundation is expected to start operations in 2009.

Opening up Symbian is seen as a reaction to Android and other free software efforts in the mobile phone space. One of the advantages touted for Linux solutions is the zero cost—particularly the lack of per-unit royalties. By moving Symbian to this model, the foundation undercuts that advantage. Because Symbian is already a dominant player in the smartphone market—with a large development community—there are some who believe it will redirect efforts currently focused on Linux to Symbian.

That remains to be seen, of course, but Linux-based smartphones are still in their infancy. MontaVista's Mobilinux has been installed in more than 35 million mobile devices, mostly in Asian markets, but, perhaps because of it being controlled by a single company, hasn't really generated a large developer community. It may also be targeting mobile carriers who are not very interested in allowing users to customize their phones—at least not to the extent Android and others envision.

There is a widening rift between the "free" and "locked down" camps for mobile devices. With this move, Nokia—and the other foundation members—seem to be moving toward allowing users more freedom, though undoubtedly some handset makers and carriers will opt for locking down their phones regardless of the openness of the underlying OS. One need look no further than the iPhone for an example of a tightly controlled application environment that is, at least so far, very popular with consumers.

In the long run, it is hard to imagine that mobile device users will be willing to stick with the limited choices of applications provided by their carrier or phone maker. As more open alternatives become available, there will be a pushback from handset buyers that will be harder for the carriers to resist. For many, their mobile phone is the most sophisticated computer they own and the history of personal computers would indicate that a thriving ecosystem of the third-party applications is an important part of the purchasing decision. That requires developers.

The current proliferation of open mobile phone software platforms is, in many ways, a battle for developer mindshare. LiMo, Android, and OpenMoko are all Linux-based development platforms that support multiple hardware devices, which should allow applications to run on many different mobile devices with minimal porting. How well that works in practice is still an open question.

For many of the established players in the mobile device market, Symbian is a known quantity. It has shipped on countless devices—its strengths and weaknesses are well understood. Turning it into a free software release will allow, at least potentially, members to move the Symbian code in the direction they want. But will that stop, or substantially slow down, the adoption of Linux-based solutions?

In order for that to happen, Symbian itself will need some kind of developer community, something like what currently exists for the kernel and user space applications on Linux. Whether the opening of the code will be enough to attract that community is an open question. It may be that developers at the member companies will be forced to form that community—something that could affect the bottom line.

One of the key problems that the various Linux-based efforts face is that of fragmentation. The vendors of royalty-based mobile platforms—primarily Microsoft and Palm—tend to point to the multiple incompatible Linux efforts as proof. They tout the control that a single vendor provides to ensure compatibility. Others, like Apple and RIM (maker of Blackberry email phones), do not license their software to others so they tightly control the hardware, which tends to avoid fragmentation.

Within a particular initiative, fragmentation is likely to be a very bad thing, but having multiple platform choices tends to provide healthy competition and thus help consumers. Over time, some of the current Linux-based platforms may fall by the wayside to leave fewer choices, but that will likely happen due to technical considerations, part of which will be determined by the third-party application developers.

One questions remains though: what happens with Qt, or more specifically the Qtopia Phone Edition? Nokia bought Trolltech early this year, at least partially for their mobile toolkit. Will they port it to Symbian and donate it to the foundation? They could, of course, port it but keep it separate, but that would seem to lead down the path toward fragmentation. It seems somewhat unlikely that they would change Trolltech's successful hybrid of GPL and commercial licenses, but before this announcement few thought that Symbian would be freed. Nokia has certainly adopted a more open-friendly stance of late—they clearly see it as a way to generate more business—so it certainly is not out of the realm of possibility.

While opening up Symbian may inhibit Linux adoption on mobile devices, it can only be seen as a good thing for consumers and the free software community as a whole. In many ways, it validates the free software development model along with the idea of freedom for users and developers. The competition between Linux and Symbian will also likely help both improve. Expect lots of interesting devices and applications in the next few years because of it.