Symbian Foundation bad for Google, Microsoft

BOSTON, USA: According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, the creation of the Symbian Foundation on June 24, 2008, will be good for Nokia, but bad news for Google Android and Microsoft.

Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, said: "We expect Nokia to use royalty-free Symbian software as a loss-leader to drive profitable growth in handsets and services in 2009. This is a good move for Nokia, because cheaper smartphones for the mass-market will eventually drive higher global volumes of Nokia devices and Ovi content."

Bonny Joy, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added: "Lower costs for the Symbian OS spell bad news for licensable rivals, such as Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobile. They will impact Android on volume and Microsoft on value. Symbian will match Android on zero-Dollar pricing, and this diminishes one of its major competitive advantages. For Microsoft, the pressure will surely mount to cut the price of its license fees to handset vendors, which we estimate to be a relatively high $14 per unit worldwide in 2008."