Nokia:Remain Strongly Committed To Symbian Operating System
SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- Nokia Corp. (NOK), the world's biggest maker of
cellphones by volume, said Wednesday it remains "strongly committed" to the
Symbian mobile operating system.
The statement comes after the German edition of the Financial Times reported
citing an unnamed source that Nokia will abandon the Symbian platform for its
smartphone devices in favor of the Maemo operating system.
"We remain strongly committed to our current open OS software strategy for
cellular devices, which is based on the world-leading Symbian OS...," Nokia said
in a statement.
The comments also came after The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday citing a
person familiar with the situation that Nokia and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) have
reached an agreement to make a mobile version of Microsoft's Office suite of
software that works on Nokia cellphones.
-By Se Young Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; +65 6415 4155; vincent.lee@dowjones.com
(Adds more Nokia comments, background about Nokia's investment in Symbian.)
By Se Young Lee
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- Nokia Corp. (NOK), the world's biggest maker of
cellphones by volume, said Wednesday it remains "strongly committed" to the
Symbian mobile operating system.
The statement comes after the German edition of the Financial Times reported
citing an unnamed source that Nokia will abandon the Symbian platform for its
smartphone devices in favor of the Maemo operating system.
"We remain strongly committed to our current open OS software strategy for
cellular devices, which is based on the world-leading Symbian OS...," Nokia said
in a statement.
In December, Nokia completed a EUR264 million deal to acquire about a 52%
stake it doesn't already own in Symbian Ltd., the software company that
developed and licensed the Symbian operating system.
The comments also came after The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday citing a
person familiar with the situation that Nokia and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) have
reached an agreement to make a mobile version of Microsoft's Office suite of
software that works on Nokia cellphones.
A Nokia spokeswoman in Finland declined to comment about a deal with
Microsoft, but said it will hold a press conference at 1600 GMT. The spokeswoman
did not provide details about the subject of the briefing.
Competition in the smartphone market continues to rise, as the segment remains
a bright spot of growth for the handset industry amid a sharp downturn and is
also considered to yield higher margins for vendors.
The arrival of Google Inc.'s (GOOG) open-source Android operating system has
also intensified pressure on handset makers to diversify their offerings.
Nokia's rivals Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) and LG Electronics Inc. (
066570.SE) have been releasing smartphones using different operating systems as
they move to diversify their respective portfolio.
-By Se Young Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; +65 6415 4155; vincent.lee@dowjones.com
(Gustav Sandstrom and Nick Wingfield contributed to this story.)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-12-090255ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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