Every mobile OS is flawed: Nokia

Monday, 4 October 2010 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Nokia has three operating systems and doesn’t need any more, the firm insists, despite rumors that it will adopt Windows Phone 7 or even Android one day.

But it has to give all three of its OSs a serious dose of credibility if it is to steal some of the thunder from Android, Apple and even perhaps WP7.

The firm’s head of design, Marko Ahtisaari, has gone on the PR offensive, claiming mobile OS design is still in its early stages, and that none of the players has yet mastered the art.

Ahtisaari told Mobile Europe that neither Apple nor Google, nor Nokia itself, had really created an excellent mobile platform yet, and that all the current options are flawed. “The smartphone market is so hot at the moment that we are under the illusion the dominant design for a smartphone OS is already in existence,” he said.

“This is not the case. We are still looking for a design for what a mobile computing device could be.”

This is an interesting slant for Nokia, because Ahtisaari explicitly places Symbian alongside Android and IOS as those apparently strong, but actually flawed, systems, while he looks to a whole new breed of OSs to define and drive the future mobile experience. And for Nokia, that means MeeGo, codeveloped with Intel and one of the emerging breed of heavily cloud/browser oriented web OSs that will also include Google Chrome OS and likely HP webOS, RIM BlackBerry Tablet OS and even emerging projects at Microsoft.

Interestingly, Apple has no real offer on the horizon in this area, as it defends its preferred platform and web model.