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The news from the Symbian smartphone show in the UK was that Lee Williams (pictured) was announced as the new head of the Symbian Foundation, the provider of the mobile software platform supported by many industry players.
But the recent annoucement of iPhone App store rivals by RIM and Google makes the European side of the mobile platform market seem a little behind the curve. While the US is making a marketplace for developers, questions over the Foundation’s independence are still being raised.
Williams is from Nokia, the company which of course bought Symbian with the grand gesture of turning Symbian OS and S60 open source. So let the conspiracy nudge-nudge wink-wink suggestions start: is he too close to the mothership? And is Nokia really going to make this open?
The question of independence was raised at the press conference by Nomura’s mobile analyst Richard Windsor, and Williams took it in his stride, saying he had given up any equity or interests in Nokia and had always operated independently. Later when I spoke to him, he put it rather more prosaically:
“I was only at Nokia for two years. I haven’t been drinking the Kool-Aid for that long.”
One analyst said to me that the question of where Williams was from would be forgotten in a few months. The key question is when and to what degree will an open operating system be released. And on that question, Williams was unequivocal: first half of 2009.
But questions over whether being open source is more of a marketing badge or a means of differentiating your platform to Windows, Apple et al, is irrelevant to many developers. Open or not, they just want the tools to get their application to market. And on that front, Symbian has its work cut out. Every developer I spoke to said developing for Symbian was harder. “Challenging” was a word frequently used. Another word was “money”, highlighting the obvious attraction of the iPhone app store as well as the new marketplaces from RIM and Google.
According to Williams, “challenging” goes hand in hand with capability and an appreciation for complexity. But he admits that “serving both the developers who want to create a full-blown office-type app and those looking to create a quick widget is the conundrum”. He hasn’t got long to solve it.
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