Google Phone

Last year we suggested that, rather than Microsoft or Apple, Nokia was Android’s main competitor; since then, the Finnish company has announced Q4 2007 sales of €15,7bn ($23bn), an increase of 34-percent over the same quarter the previous year, and strong performance in all regions bar the US.  Today, however, comes the next step in Nokia’s plans to rival the Open Handset Alliance: they’ve made a €104m ($153) bid for Trolltech, a multi-platform Linux developer responsible for the software currently found running Google Earth, Skype, and a variety of mobile devices including Sony’s Mylo messenger.

“The technology landscape evolves and, for Nokia, software plays a major role in our growth strategy for devices, PCs and the integration with the Internet. We continue to focus on areas where we can differentiate and add more value. Common cross-platform layers on top of our software platforms attract innovation and enable Web 2.0 technologies in the mobile space.  Trolltech’s deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable both Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time-to-market. This acquisition will also further increase the competitiveness of S60 and Series 40″ Kai Öistämö, Executive Vice President, Devices, Nokia

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Nokia has hit back at Google’s Android platform, with CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo dismissing the Open Handset Alliance’s OS launch with the suggestion that the Finnish company themselves have already trodden much of the software ground Google and partners are currently bringing attention to: “conceptually, we could have made that announcement a long time ago.”  In fact, with their announcement of the Ovi internet-services project - that has recently clinched the support of Vodafone, already a vocal critic of Android - that will combine their music and mapping services, as well as hints of geo-targeted advertising, their position as chief rival to the Google OS seems increasingly cemented.

“Mobile phones have two qualities that PCs don’t have: they’re always with you, and they tell other people where you are” Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia

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While some are content to pit Android against atypical ‘rivals’ like the iPhone, InformationWeek’s Eric Zeman is posing the far more realistic question of what Nokia can do to preserve their 78-percent smartphone OS market share. 

“Even the latest iteration of S60 (which has been under constant development for eons) doesn’t do some of the things we saw in the Android demo. While Symbian and Nokia are probably hard at work developing touch-capable software and phones, Google already has done it, to a certain extent. The demos highlight how applications can be used and tied together seamlessly to create a natural workflow” Eric Zeman, InformationWeek

Thing is, Nokia have already been showing off their touchscreen cellphone concept: the imaginatively named Nokia Touch, which is set to launch sometime next year complete with the next generation in haptic-feedback.

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It was only a matter of time - and a number of positive headlines proclaiming Android as “savour of the cellphone” - before competing firms stepped up and gave their opinions, and so far it’s been a mixture of the scathing, the subtle and the sidestep.  First up is Symbian, whose heated diatribe with the BBC leaves little room for confusion as to their stance on Google’s Linux-based platform:

“About every three months this year there has been a mobile Linux initiative of some sort launched.  It’s a bit like the common cold. It keeps coming round and then we go back to business” John Forsyth, Vice President of Strategy, Symbian

Forsyth goes on to criticise Google’s apparent confidence that they can translate their expertise in search technology into the cellular world, suggesting that they not only lack the support backbone to maintain Android but that third-party developers would be reluctant to shift focus to produce software compatible with the platform.

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