Nokia, Microsoft, Apple and RIM - notable omissions from Google’s Open Handset Alliance - have all dismissed Android, the new upstart to a mobile OS market dominated by Symbian and Windows Mobile.
Reuters canvassed the companies on their responses to Android and all brushed it aside, claiming that it may boost web browsing on handsets but won’t threaten their dominance.
“If Google was not involved the industry would have just yawned and rolled over,” John Forsyth, strategy chief at Symbian, told Reuters. He said it would face difficulties basing the platform on an open-source, collectively designed Linux operating system.
He went on: “We have been going nine years and have probably seen a dozen new platforms come in and tell us we are under attack.
“We take it seriously but we are the ones with real phones, real phone platforms and a wealth of volume built up over years.”
Meanwhile Nokia, which owns 48% of Symbian simply said: “We don’t see this as a threat.”
On the other side of the fence sit the industry analysts. They claim Google’s influence could disrupt the cosy Symbian-Windows Mobile-UIQ (Sony Ericsson’s provider) market. In particular it could generate a standard on mobile advertising.
“Google coming into any market is an important step, no matter how they come into it,” said Shaun Collins, analyst at CCS Insight.
It seems the jury’s still out on Android, but next year when it starts appearing on handsets will be very interesting indeed.
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