Nokia + Trolltech makes a lot of sense.

There has been a lot of speculation about why Nokia has acquired Trolltech (press release), and here is more.

Its not about mobile Linux

First, Qt is not an OS and its not a software layer. Qt is a devtool that generates native apps for different platforms from the same source. Nokia is most likely going to use Qt to create applications for S60 and Series 40. It will take some time for Trolltech to add S60 and Series 40 to Qt, so this is a long term thing.

There is not going to be a Nokia Linux OS for mobile. S60 and Series 40 will continue and Qt will be the cross platform devtool. (The Maemo OS used in the Nokia internet tablets will not be affected).

Nokia has some grand plans for Ovi. They are going to do what Apple does, take a Consumer Electronics approach and create an "integrated experience" (a door-to-door service). A tight integration with Ovi  means they need for of of new features on the phones. With Qt, they won't have to maintain two separate codebases, one for the feature phones and one for the smartphones.
Also, general UI development on Series 40 could benefit.

Java for the operators

Operators want Java based tools for customizing the handsets [shudder].
Trolltech has a Java wrapper called Qt Jambi that might fit very nicely with this.
(Btw: Motorola has given up trying to sell Linux based phones to operators and are now offering Linux+Java.)

The Qtopia product is of little interest to Nokia and might be sold off.

Defragmentation?

Actually, if you think about it, this has a rather interesting defragmentation effect! Nokia has always played nice and waited for standardization and so forth. If Nokia releases this to 3rd party developers and you could deploy on 40% of the phones in the world from a single codebase, that would certainly be revolutionary.

Comments

[Mobile Phone Reviews]

Mobile Phone Reviews said...

I agree that if Nokia releases this to 3rd party developers it would be revolutionary. I found the press release interesting as well. Good info.