They don’t advertise for killers in the newspaper. That was my profession. Ex-cop. Ex-blade runner. — Blade Runner
Nokia’s Symbian OS for cell phones and Google’s Android are destined to be combined to provide a single open source operating system for smartphones, opines analyst firm J. Gold Associates in a research note.
The merger of the two operating systems will begin within three to six months, driven mostly by the fact that Nokia and Google are pursuing similar open source strategies with their respective technology, says Gold. “Many of the same sponsors are involved in both initiatives.”
Nokia recently acquired 100% ownership of Symbian and announced plans to turn it over to a new Symbian Foundation to create an open source OS, which would be offered to foundation members sometime in the first half of 2009.
In pursuing the same open source strategy, Google and supporters have formed the Open Handset Alliance for Android. Members include Motorola and Japan-based DoCoMo, which are also participants in the Symbian Foundation.
“A combination of the Android and Symbian efforts would be good for the industry, good for Google and good for Symbian,” J. Gold said. “It would also help spur a growth in the availability of applications and services. The downside is minimal. Everyone wins.”
Portland is Open Source City, says Oregon Public Broadcasting. Their live program is coming from the O’Reilly’s Open Source Convention today. Jim Zemlin, Raven Zachary and Rick Turoczy were guests.
Jim Zemlin explains The Mysterious Work of the Linux Foundation.
At the OSCON open-source software convention, Symbian vice president of strategy John M. Forsyth gave a presentation in which he explained the reasoning behind their open-source strategy. Forsyth admits that the Symbian foundation doesn’t entirely know what is doing yet and says that they are looking to the community for advice on how to proceed, reports Ars Technica.
Android Is For The Masses, iPhone For The Rich, says the Read/Write Web.
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