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Tuesday June 24, 2008
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Nokia bought the rest of OS maker Symbian today, but the real news for U.S. readers is that AT&T is part of the announcement.
The Symbian OS is an oddity in the world of smart phones. It's very popular outside the U.S.--Reuters correctly notes it's on two-thirds of the smart phones sold abroad--but it's been generally shunned by U.S. carriers, resulting in a vanishingly small U.S. market share.
If Americans want Symbian phones, they generally have to buy unlocked devices direct from Nokia. (Nokia makes the vast majority of Symbian phones.) Those phones are more expensive than phones sold through carriers, because there are no carrier subsidies involved.
In recent years, AT&T has carried occasional lackluster Symbian devices such as the disappointing Nokia N75; T-Mobile has carried none at all. Because all Symbian devices use the GSM network, Sprint, Verizon and Alltel don't even have the option to carry these smart phones.
Nokia will donate the Symbian software back to a foundation which will make it royalty-free, ostensibly so more manufacturers will make Symbian phones and the OS will better be able to compete. AT&T is a member of the new foundation, and here's what AT&T's Kris Rinne has to say about Symbian:
The Symbian Foundation will reduce fragmentation in the industry and holds the promise of incorporating leading technology and the most mature software into a unified platform for the entire industry. This will create an environment that will encourage and enable developers to build compelling applications that will positively affect our customers' lives and support AT&T in offering its differentiated services to consumers.
This could mean more Symbian phones on AT&T in the future, including great devices like the Nokia N82 and N95 8GB. That would be great news indeed.
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