Palm Shunned Symbian Because Of Nokia Links
Palm CEO Ed Colligan says the company decided against using the Symbian OS for its next Treo device because “Nokia owns Symbian”. He adds they went with Windows Mobile because some of its carrier customers wanted a Windows Mobile Treo, while some enterprises have a “Microsoft-only” attitude. The resistance towards using what Palm sees as a Nokia-owned product (Nokia owns 48% of Symbian, the rest is held by Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens and Samsung), then choosing to go with Microsoft is a little curious, given Microsoft’s history with hardware partners in the smartphone space and its propensity for using OEMs to create white-label devices that emphasize the Microsoft brand. The new Treo is being built by Microsoft’s favorite OEM, HTC — how long before it’s just another white-label device without the Palm brand?
