This is SymbianOne quoting Lee Epting
here"This initiative will attract a critical mass of open source software developers to build a consistent, web browser engine as the clearest path to minimize fragmentation in the mobile browser market,"
Nokia announced they are turning over the source code from the popular S60 (series 60) web browser to the open source movement. The code will fall under the BSD license. Is this good or bad? Qui bono?
With this move, as Epting implicitly says, NOKIA continues with their master strategy: attempting to reach a paradoxical combination of niche-customization (and the inevitable market fragmentation) and a keystone position in the system of global niche-customized markets.
I have tried to describe this strategy with this picture that I prepared for my presentation XML Finland 2005. It is called the keystone strategy system. Many of my friends and colleagues are working with open source software startups. I originally drawed this picture for them. Especially the word "COLONY" there in the upper right corner tries to say something for these innovative, hard working young OS-idealists.
So. What does this S60 Open Sourcing Announcement mean for the european software startups? An opportunity? Perhaps yes. But there is an other option too. Unfortunately more true, I am afraid. It takes one further step in making Europe the biggest innovation colony to the world's high-tech firms. And yes, the
colony here refers to the word colonialization as this vision has been described
in an article Stuffed at Both Ends by Bundeep Singh Rangar.
This is an early comment made by a representative of the Norwegian mobile browser company Opera:
" If Nokia succeeds with their own web browser, our revenue from the Nokia market will decrease" admits marketing manager of Opera, Rolf Assev in a comment to digi.no. "The upside will be that Nokia provides a web browser in all their Symbian-devices, thus making a web browser mandatory on other mobiles, something that will help us." Assev adds.
The concept "keystone" comes from Marco Iansiti and Roy Levien:
The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability (Hardcover) Marco Iansiti; Roy Levien
