The Wireless Blog

The world’s biggest handset manufacturer has been an open-source advocate for years, using Linux in its Internet Tablets and now turning the Symbian handset operating system into an open-source project. Is Nokia thinking about a dual OS strategy for its products going forward, perhaps using Linux in some phones?

That was implied in some recent news stories quoting analysts to that effect. But don’t count on Nokia building anything but Symbian-based smartphones (which the company calls “mobile computers”), even after it gives away the Symbian OS to the open-source community. Leave it to other OEMs, like Motorola and Samsung, to use several operating systems, including Linux, Microsoft Mobile, or Google Android.

Nokia has been using Linux in its Internet Tablets since 2005, starting with the 770 model. It also acquired more Linux expertise earlier this year when it acquired Trolltech. But neither of those moves means Nokia will be building a Linux phone anytime soon.

Kai Oistamo, executive vice president for Nokia Devices, told me in an interview that Nokia will continue to use the “maemo” version of Linux in products like the Internet Tablet but not in smartphones. He said Linux is an “interesting OS option for beyond” the smartphone.

Oistamo pointed out that open-source software already is used in some elements of Nokia’s Symbian S60 for smartphones. One example is the use of the WebKit browser, which is also used in Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers. Oistamo said Symbian may use other Linux open-source elements in the future, but more as an enabler for applications.

Nokia also doesn’t see phones operating in a closed environment, but as a link within a personal or professional network. That’s where Trolltech comes into play with its cross-platform Qt (pronounced “cute”) platform, Oistamo said. Qt enables applications to work across a wide range of platforms.

Qt is now being ported to the S60 platform, available in a preview version for developers now and mass release in mid-2009, according to Benoit Schillings, chief technologist for Nokia’s Qt Software unit (formerly Trolltech). Shillings said Qt will make it possible for Symbian developers to write an application and have it run on Microsoft Windows, Apple’s Mac, Linux, Windows CE, Windows Mobile and embedded Linux platforms.

So, Nokia certainly has an interest in Linux and open-source going forward, but don’t expect the software to become the central OS in one of its phones. But Symbian’s push into open-source will make the whole mobile Linux world an interesting industry to watch in coming years. What’s going to happen to the LiMo Foundation, created in 2007? The LiMo platform is being used on about two-dozen handsets, including several from Motorola. But there’s more attention being paid in the market place to the future of an open-source Symbian and Android.