

The next Nokia OS: Android or Windows? - fosk
http://www.fabcapo.com/2011/01/next-nokia-os-android-or-windows.html

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iloveponies
Not a week goes by without some blogger speculating that Nokia will just give
up on MeeGo (or is completely oblivious to the existence of it in the first
place) and start making devices with Android. And not a week goes by that they
seem to be mistaken by how much Nokia has put into MeeGo, Symbian and Ovi and
how much their PR is trying to remind people of that fact. It's clear that
Nokia want their own separate ecosystem for content, software and services and
not share it with anyone else, and they aren't going to have that on either
Android or WP7.

~~~
jsnell
This time around is different though, given that the speculation is founded on
the heavy-handed hints from Nokia's own CEO during an earnings call. They
didn't come out and outright admit it, but it was hard to interpret the
comments in any other way than using another OS in the US while keeping at
least Symbian and probably MeeGo around for the rest of the world.

Seems like a totally insane strategy though, whether that other OS is Android
or WP7. Announce some new models with a new OS, admit that your own software
development processes have totally failed, undermine your own developer story
totally by further fragmenting the platform and by making the future of
Symbian/Meego/QT uncertain. And then probably ship that phone 9 months later,
when nobody cares anymore. I really hope they're doing something else.

~~~
ig1
Nokia in Berlin are hiring quite a few developers at the moment, mainly for
Ovi & Maps, but also for their Meego platform:

<http://www.coderstack.co.uk/jobs/155-nokia-senior-c-engineer>

[http://www.coderstack.co.uk/jobs/154-nokia-senior-qa-
enginee...](http://www.coderstack.co.uk/jobs/154-nokia-senior-qa-engineer-ovi-
maps)

[http://www.coderstack.co.uk/jobs/153-nokia-senior-
frontend-j...](http://www.coderstack.co.uk/jobs/153-nokia-senior-frontend-
javascript-developer-ovi)

Which would seem to suggest that there's no immediate plan for a change in
direction.

One of the added benefits of running a developer job board is you get a very
good feel for tech trends :-)

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rchowe
Nokia makes a lot of phones. I think it's going to be Android, simply because
of the hardware requirements imposed by WP7 would mean that Nokia's large
amount of phones worldwide would all have to meet a fairly high bar, which
isn't going to happen. They're going to choose Android, which is basically
Symbian with buttons in saner locations. If they do some Android some Windows,
they're probably doomed, because they're right back to where they started.

------
dshep
I really hope its Android and not Microsoft. WP7 seems more like a side or
backward step compared to Symbian. Taking advantage of all the good things
about Android would seem a smart move to get Nokia back in the game. Look how
far Apple has come by building OSX on top of Unix/BSD...

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ericmsimons
WP7 for sure. Microsoft wants as many devices as possible to run WP7...they'll
probably pay Nokia to use WP7. I don't think Google will care either way since
they're selling so many Android handsets as it is.

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seltzered
What would stop them from supporting android apps within meego? There's rumors
that the RIM playbook is going this route.

~~~
moxiemk1
Where did you find these rumors? Everything I've read indicated that only DOM
applications and Flash+friends applications will be possible on the Playbook.

~~~
Zev
The rumors come from a BGR[1] post saying that the playbook may or may not use
the Dalvik VM, without bothering to look into the rest of the SDK and if it
would work with QNX or not.

1\. [http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/26/exclusive-blackberry-
playbook-...](http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/26/exclusive-blackberry-playbook-and-
smartphones-to-run-android-apps/)

~~~
moxiemk1
That would be pretty neat - if they could have an implementation compatible
enough to only require cross-compiling, we'd be going somewhere darn cool.

Many APIs have had the promise of multiple implementations (and some have
succeeded in at least making them, ie OPENstep's many implementations, and
Java) but it seems to have not been widely used.

Except, well, unix. Heh, I suppose it has been done successfully.

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wslh
I think the best is following the HTC route: Going for both. But with Nokia
behind the decision, who knows?

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eli
Pure speculation.

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gcb
I really hope none. Or both.

Imagine nokia selling devices that work just like pcs. You could buy with
windows, android or even install the latest hobie OS on your own.

Just have to open all the hardware interfaces to kernel devs

~~~
othermaciej
That seems unlikely to be a good plan for the mass market. Phones are judged
by the standards of consumer electronics, and people expect it to just work.
They don't want to fuss with it like a PC. Integration seems to be the more
effective strategy for delivering a smooth experience.

