Nokia Looking To Buy Psion, Take Over Symbian
Just last Friday we pointed to research from ARCchart saying that the majority of Symbian sales would come via Nokia. Now, it’s sounding like Nokia is realizing this and giving up the whole “owned by multiple companies” aspect of Symbian. A few months ago, we reported that Motorola, one of the founding Symbian members was selling out and selling their shares to Nokia and Psion. Now, the rumor is that Nokia is taking the whole pie and is looking to buy Psion. Nokia currently owns 32% of Symbian compared to Psion’s 31%. Combined, they would have total control over the operating system, and could better position themselves to take on Microsoft – though, it would cut off just about any hope of getting Symbian traction on other manufacturers’ handsets. Update: People are now denying this deal.Derek’s Update: ARCchart has updated its position, stating mainly that Nokia should make the purchase for financial motives alone. I think the strategic cost is too high. Full Nokia control will scare the other handset vendors using Symbian straight into Redmond’s waiting arms.
