Devices chief says an open Symbian ecosystem will be better than those run by a "dictatorship".
Nokia has waded into the mobile OS war of words, having stood watching the skirmishes between Apple, Google and BlackBerry from the sidelines for much of this year.Speaking at the Smartphone Show in London yesterday, the company's EVP of devices Kai Oistamo went on the offensive, explaining that the planned opening of the Symbian OS would benefit the whole industry.
He said: "I strongly believe an open ecosystem wins over an ecosystem run by a captain, or I should say a dictatorship... Collaboration is the key. Creating a bigger pie together creates a bigger share for all of us."
Nokia dominance of the smartphone OS market has come under threat from closed and open platforms alike this year, as newcomers press their case and existing players raise their game.
Apple, Google, Microsoft and BlackBerry are presumably in Oistamo's sights.
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Nokia bought the chunk of Symbian it didn't already own for $410 million back in June, and agreed to make the software available to the Symbian Foundation.
The Symbian Foundation is now home to the Symbian OS and S60 from Nokia, UIQ technology from Motorola and Sony Ericsson and MOAP(S) by NTT DOCOMO and Fujitsu.
This contributed software will be available under a royalty-free license to foundation members from the first day of Symbian Foundation operations, expected 1H 2009.
Until then the members are working to unify all the working parts of the software, with a view to making the code open source by June 2010.
The Symbian Foundation announced 12 more members earlier this week.
