Skype comes to Nokia’s Symbian
The world’s most used mobile operating system is getting the world’s leading VOIP service. Skype is coming to the Symbian system, which may not be welcome news for networks.
The world’s most used mobile operating system is getting the world’s leading VOIP service. Skype is coming to the Symbian system, which may not be welcome news for networks.
Like the retail business for desktop computers, where the company is said to have cornered in excess of 60 percent of the available revenue, Apple’s iPhone is also a superlative earner. Although there’s no sign competition will force cut prices, it’s obvious they’ve got plenty of room to do so whenever they’re ready to go for the throat.
It’s safe to say 2009 was not a great year for Windows Mobile. Not only did its smartphone market share slump significantly, but it was the only major operating system to appear on fewer handsets sold in 2009 than 2008.
The International Trade Commission, already investigating Nokia complaints against Apple, has now agreed to investigate Apple claims about Nokia. Meanwhile the commission is also looking into a complaint by Kodak about both Apple and Research In Motion.
As we reported last month, Nokia has accused Apple of violating patents on everything from how phones handles to GSM standard to the way touchscreens work. As well as launching court action, Nokia complained to the ITC which, despite its name, is a U.S. government agency which mainly advises officials on trade policy but does have some powers to restrict imports in intellectual property cases.
Intel and Nokia are to merge their Linux-based mobile operating systems. It appears to be an attempt to increase their range of potential users in the hope of better competing with major players.
Symbian, the operating system that’s shipped on more than 330 million phones, is to be made open source. It’s the conclusion of a two-year process that began when Nokia bought the rights to the system.
Nokia is to make the premium edition of its Ovi GPS navigation tools available on some handsets without charge. It noted that the tools cover 74 countries, compared with those on Google’s Android system which are U.S. only.
Nokia has followed its U.S. trademark lawsuits against Apple with a demand for a ban all imports of the firm’s mobile devices. Were this granted, any Apple device with mobile capability, from the iPhone to the MacBook, could not be sold in the United States.
Mozilla has confirmed that a mobile version of Firefox will be released soon, possible before the end of the year. It will launch on the Nokia N900 and then spread to other handsets during 2010.
German GPS manufacturer Navigon Navigon has produced a turn-by-turn Android navigation app to fill the international gap left by Google. Meanwhile Apple looks set to be stepping up its game in the navigation field.