Nokia finds value in open source community — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{It’s the innovation, not the free licence} Nokia finds value in open source community

Sebastian Nystrom

2 Mar 2008 at 15:01 GMT Timo Poropudas

The existence of the Linux kernel provided Nokia an opportunity to develop the N800-series Internet tablet. Without it, we could not have afforded to build an operating system for the device, said Nokia’s Sebastian Nystrom, Director, Technology Strategy.

Nystrom discussed Nokia’s strategy at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

He explained that Nokia is willing to accept the rules of the open software environment for its open source platform.

The free software licence is not the main pull for open source. Nokia sees the main benefits in innovation and continuous development.

Earlier this year Nokia purchased a Norwegian open source software house Trolltech for one hundred million euros. So the phone giant is investing real money into open source tools.

Trolltech is known for its Green Phone, a Linux-based mobile reference platform. However, this was not the draw for Nokia. The Trolltech's crown jewels are its Qt cross platform developing tools and software libraries, Nystrom explains. He emphasizes that Nokia is not planning to build Linux phones.

"Our Maeomo-Linux is totally open and users can change everything. It has no billing, protection or limits," Nystrom said. A traditional phone protects its user with a certain set of rules but the Internet tablet lacks this protection. The tablet can be connected to a mobile network by hooking it up with a mobile phone via Bluetooth.

"We have not excluded a possibility of a phone from the tablet but the whole device has been designed as a small format computer with a handheld interface and a stylus input. The tablet is targeted for phone usage. That’s not the segment we are looking for."

According to Nystrom, Nokia has a rich history of using open source software and licences. Internally Nokia has clear rules how and when to open source code.

Nokia has switched from the Opera developed mobile browser to the open source Webkit browser. Opera Software’s Anthony Wade, the company commercial director for EMEA, predicted that in a few years Nokia would notice that it would be more expensive to tailor the Webkit browser than licence a commercially developed Browser.

Wade also needled Nokia by saying that Apple will lead the Webkit development.

"Do you think that Apple and Nokia engineers will talk to each other," Wade asked in Barcelona?

Nystrom freely admits that there is no free lunch, not even in the open source world.

"We have to compare the cost of a commercial license that includes the design, development, testing and bug fixing to taking an open source product and tailoring it for our own purposes."

"In an ideal case one can find a ready-made open source product that does not require any extra work. That would be the cheapest solution. But usually you cannot avoid investing if you want to create your own product. This is not an either-or choice, or a black-and-white question. Real life is full of shades of grey."

Nystrom dismisses the freeness of open source licence. He says that the decision to use an open source code depends on continuous innovation and development. You get the most advantage from the fact that other players are willing to roll the development forward.

"It is not so much a question of money as it a question of speed, agility and flexibility."

Nystrom won’t argue with Wade’s statement of Apple leading the Webkit development. He says that no one player can dominate open software development.

"The one who invests most has the biggest influence. If a company has a large group of developers, it will create more and better proposals and those proposals will take the day."

Nokia is working on Webkit but it focuses on the user interface of the Webkit mobile browser.

"This is the heart of open source development; everyone can concentrate on the area of his or her own interest."