There was really no reason for Nokia to keep Symbian around in North America. It had never reached any type of critical market or mind share and devices were rare on the shelves of the four major U.S. carriers. Yet, there is something to be said for Nokia's dominating brand getting phased out. It never had a great user interface, although it had a healthy app store with Ovi, with thousands of developers worldwide making Symbian apps. Yet, with Nokia prepping for a large scale launch of Windows Phone 7, there is no room left in the North American market for Symbian or MeeGo.

"It will be Windows Phone and the accessories around that. The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone, it doesn't matter what we do (elsewhere)," Weber said to AllThingsD.

Nokia's market strategy has Microsoft written all over it. CEO Stephen Elop was a former Microsoft executive, as was Weber. The idea is to start in the U.S. and then make devices available worldwide. The theory is that any type of critical mass in the North American market can carry overseas, much the same way that it has for Apple and Android.

Nokia also plans its biggest marketing campaign ever for Windows Phone, which also falls in line with Microsoft's blueprint. Microsoft's XBox lost money for years as the company poured dollars into its advertising effort, and the effort eventually paid off.

Nokia's Windows Phones are expected to come out later this year integrated with "Mango," the next development of the platform.

Are you going to miss Symbian? Or is it hard to miss something that you have never really seen before? On the other end, are you excited about new Windows Phones, from Nokia or elsewhere? Let us know in the comments.

As big as Nokia is, it can't afford to go it alone, Elop told the blog AllThingsD in an interview last week. But who is Nokia's new partner? BusinessWeek says that Elop held talks with both Microsoft and Google on the matter. But now, all signs are pointing to Microsoft as the key to Nokia's radical strategy shift.

Despite the inability of former Nokia execs to grasp the fact that the mobile industry has changed since the time when Nokia was king, it has. Tomi Ahonen, a former Nokia exec turned consultant, claimed that Elop's memorable "Burning Platform" memo to company employees was a hoax written by an American analyst.

But it was not a hoax at all, according to a number of high-profile news sites, including Engadget and BBC News, who each independently verified the memo's legitimacy with multiple sources. Instead, it represents the new thinking that Elop brings to the global brand - a frank, "tell it like it is" viewpoint that former Nokia employees like Ahonen can't quite understand.

"We poured gasoline on our own burning platform," wrote Elop in the memo to employees. "I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning."

The signs that Nokia was on a downward trend have been there for some time, but perhaps it took an outsider like Elop to take action - action like canceling Nokia's first MeeGo smartphone, for example. This week, it was reported that the company has ditched its plans to launch its first phone using the MeeGo operating system, the OS that emerged from a combination of Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin OS'. MeeGo was going to be Nokia's new flagship OS, the one it would use to compete with the Androids and iPhones of the smartphone world.

Nokia has lost market share over the past few years to competitors like Apple and Google, the latter of which is now poised to compete with Nokia not only on the high-end smartphone front but also on low-end feature phones that have typically been Nokia's bread-and-butter.

Nokia Said to be Choosing Microsoft

And now, the world and the markets await news of Nokia's comeback plan.

According to a number of reports, that plan involves Microsoft. One of BusinessWeek's sources said that Nokia would prefer to have a partnership with a software company like Microsoft, rather than being yet another company that licenses Android software.

Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system has been favorably reviewed by technology journalists, bloggers and analysts, but has not picked up significant market share as of yet. A Nokia partnership where the Microsoft's software ran on Nokia hardware - traditionally one of Nokia's strengths - would change that.

A telling tweet from Google's VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, appears to confirm this is the case. In a message that would appear cryptic to casual observers, Gundotra posted: "#feb11 "Two turkeys do not make an Eagle." The date is referring to Nokia's Capital Markets Day and the "turkeys" are clearly Google's competitors in mobile: Nokia and Microsoft. Obviously, if Nokia had chosen Google, Gundotra wouldn't be insulting the company in such a way.

Perhaps what's most incredible about the forthcoming announcement, is not just the radical overhaul and course correction it represents for Nokia, but the speed with which it came about. Elop only took Nokia's helm last fall - he moves fast, it seems.

Also expected tomorrow is confirmation of the reports that Nokia will shake up its management structure, too, with the dismissal of several top executives: Mary T. McDowell, the executive in charge of Nokia's mobile phones unit; Niklas Savander, the manager of the markets unit; Tero Ojanpera, the manager responsible for services and mobile solutions; and Chief Development Officer Kai Oistamo.

Friday is shaping up to be an interesting day for mobile observers. Stay tuned.

According to the application's description, Nokia Situations is able to "sense" things like the time of day, your location, what networks you're connected to, and then adjust one or more phone settings accordingly.

Then you can tell the phone what you want it to do when a particular situation occurs. This can include silencing the ringer or changing the ringtone, answering missed calls via an automatic SMS, turning on or off Bluetooth, changing the theme or wallpaper, automatically opening an app or changing the device mode.

Earlier this year, we reported on a similar technology for N97 devices called "Nokia Bots," that did much of the same thing as Situations does now. The new app, however, works on a wide range of Nokia devices, including the N97/97 mini, Symbian 3 devices, S60 (3rd Ed., Feature Pack 2), Nokia C6-00, Nokia 5228, Nokia 5230, Nokia 5230 Nuron, Nokia 5235 Comes With Music Edition, Nokia 5250, Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia X6-00 phones.

Although the Silicon Valley tech press is caught up with iPhone and Android because they're the focus of the Valley's developer ecosystem, that group is "about to get a lot more competition," Kochikar warned, because today Nokia is launching the first touchscreen SDK (software development kit) for feature phones - the phones that still have the largest install base on the planet.

With today's launch of its new Java SDK for Series 40 Touch and Type, the company aims to connect developers to the emerging markets where Java still dominates.

Bringing the Internet to the Rest of the World

The SDK is the first of its kind as it brings the benefit of touch to a new group of consumers, that being feature phone users. It even allows developers to port their existing Nokia smartphone apps to the Java platform with ease. It's the platform, says Kochikar, that will bring the Internet to the rest of the world.

To illustrate this point, Kochikar mentioned an app called VuClip that lets users watch video clips on their mobile phones. The developers of the app were expecting it to sell well in Europe, but were caught a bit off guard when they discovered most of the paying customers were coming from emerging markets instead.

"There is a hunger for apps on these devices and people are willing to pay for the right experience," Kochikar explained.

For developers, building apps for feature phones allows them to not only focus on the sort of success that comes in dollars and cents, but success that can be measured by impact, too.

"Think globally, act locally," was the tagline being touted today. Already developers have built apps for emerging markets that allow Africans to check for counterfeit medicine and apps that help Chinese migrant workers. The Java SDK for feature phones will allow more of these kinds of "impactful" apps to be built, ported from smartphones to feature phones and perhaps most importantly, monetized.

Nokia's close connections to its operator partners and its developer presence in markets worldwide means developers can build apps in the local language, allow users to pay with their local currency and use any checkout mechanism the developers prefer. And thanks to Nokia's support for operator billing, available now in 127 countries and 91 operators, potential customers in these markets can actually buy the applications, even if they don't have (or want to use) a credit card.

Good News for Developers

The good news for developers here is that when customers are allowed to buy apps using operator billing mechanisms, there's a 13-times increase in the number of transactions over credit card billing. That means, simply put, developers will sell more apps. They'll also be able to distribute free apps and sell items, upgrades and other features using in-app purchases, a feature now in beta testing but expected to launch publicly by Q1 2011. Those purchases, too, can be tied to operator billing mechanisms.

Also good news for developers, the 70/30 (developer/Nokia) split on app revenue is being changed as of Oct. 1. Before, the 70% revenue cut earned by the developer was minus operator billing fees. That fee could vary wildly from operator to operator, making it hard to project future earnings. Now developers will receive a flat 60% cut instead, while Nokia takes 40% to even out the discrepancies on the developers' end. For some developers, this will lead to as much as a 50% increase in revenue as Nokia effectively subsidizes some of these applications.

If the potential to sell to nearly all the feature phone users in the world via operator billing mechanisms and with an increased revenue share doesn't attract a developer's attention now, then maybe nothing will. But developers who are ignoring Nokia are ignoring large numbers of users - Nokia has 175 Symbian devices, 45 million touch-enabled smartphone users, and 50 million-plus customers expected for the company's new devices. That's a sizable market, and one that developers should consider, says Kochikar, even if Silicon Valley doesn't.

Disclosure: Nokia paid for this reporter's travel and accommodations to Nokia World 2010.

But today's Nokia can no longer operate as the silent giant, it seems. Market share alone is not enough. Nokia is after mindshare. The company is keenly aware the competition that's snipping at its heels, specifically Google Android, the mobile operating system that is predicted to pass Symbian in market share by 2014, according to some analyst forecasts.

Is it too late for Nokia to rally?

When Savander was on stage, there was a tone of excitement, but also one of slight exasperation when it came to public perception of the Nokia brand. He made jabs at competitors throughout the keynote while announcing the company's new device offerings, which included Nokia's best cameraphone ever, the N8, plus the sleek and thinner C6 and C8 models.

When touting the many features of the new N8, for example, he trotted out the line Motorola has been using for some time in their marketing materials, telling the audience that the phones work "no matter how you hold them," a swipe at Apple's widely publicized iPhone 4 antenna issues.

Later, he took a shot at Google Android's built-in maps offering, saying Nokia's Ovi Maps is "more optimized for mobile use" that its competitors. That statement is actually true, because Nokia uses vector graphics, which are more compressed and less data intensive than Google's bitmap-based mapping application - but the fact that a Nokia exec mentions it during a keynote is telling. Google is the competition, Nokia now knows. And it's fighting back.

Savander, in a rather transparent and honest speech, told the audience that Nokia would no longer apologize for not being Apple or Android. Instead, it seems he will just taunt the competition with raw statistics instead. For example, Savander made mention of the fact that Nokia devices are in the hands of more people on the planet than iPhone and Android combined. Plus:

• There are 1.3 billion Nokia users worldwide.
• 40% of the smartphone market runs Symbian.
• On average, 260,000 people buy new Nokia smartphones every day.
• There are 300 million Symbian devices worldwide.
• Nokia plans to ship more than 50 million smartphones running its new Symbian operating system, Symbian^3.

Oh, and if that's not enough, then how about the fact that there are 2 million-plus Nokia developers and 100 operators in dozens of countries that will offer the N8 for sale at launch?

It sounds like Nokia is standing up and demanding to be noticed for once: It's big. It's very, very big. And it would like you to stop ignoring it.

Finally, Savander addressed the location-based networking trend among smartphone owners, one that Nokia believes is the future of mobile. By 2013, over 800 million people will be using GPS-enabled devices, he said. Right now, in 2010, 66% of devices with on-board navigation are Nokia phones. Soon your phone will analyze your location, your friends' location and your needs in order to deliver personalized services, explained Savander, and location is "a space we intend to own."

Along with everything else it seems.

Yet Nokia must be uncomfortably aware of the ground Android has been making over the past months. Research analysts at Gartner say that Android, which is now being introduced into both feature phones and smartphones, will be the number two platform worldwide by year-end and the number one platform by 2014, if the current growth trends continue.

Nokia may have proclaimed "it's back" this morning, but really the company means it's fighting back , aiming to change just how people perceive the company. Is this the new, aggressive Nokia? Will it be able to rally and stop Android from claiming more and more of its market share?

Nothing's definite of course, not even Garner's numbers, and as anyone watching technology knows, a lot can change in a few years' time.

Disclosure: Nokia paid for this reporter's travel and accommodations to Nokia World 2010.

By partnering with Virgin Mobile India, GetJar is actually making its second foray into the Indian market. In April of this year, the San Mateo-based company joined forces with Reliance Communications, India's largest CDMA and GSM service provider, to create India's largest mobile app store. GetJar further tightens its grip on the large Indian mobile market with today's announcement.

Younger users make up a large percentage of feature phone and mobile app users, so it makes sense that GetJar would partner with a youth-centric carrier like Virgin. "We look forward to garnering a significant mindshare amongst the youth with this alliance," says GetJar CEO and founder Ilja Laurs.

"Mobile applications and games garner a significant share of time spent on the phone by the youth today," says Virgin Mobile India CEO M. A. Madhusudan. "This alliance with GetJar is an initiative in line with our strategy to engage and enthrall the youth with the latest innovative cutting-edge content on the move."

Last month we mentioned how GetJar's CMO Patrick Mork predicted 50 billion app downloads across all mobile app stores by 2012 - a number twice that of market research predictions for 2015. Whichever estimation is more accurate, the mobile app market is certainly booming, and at 3 million downloads per day, GetJar is a major player flying under many people's radars.

Google introduced Search by Voice in 2008 and has been rolling that functionality out into different parts of the Googlesphere since. Now Google Maps 4.1 comes with voice search.

• business name
• business category
• city, state
• ZIP code
• postal address
• intersection, city, state
• airport code
• latitude longitude

Hands-free it is not, however. To start the search you still need to open Google Maps and hit "call" prior to making your search.

The install is available on qualifying phones at m.google.com/maps.

An interesting aspect of the language settings the ability to select not just your language but, if it's English, the accent you use. I wonder if this functionality will be available to Spanish-speakers or whether the different accents within Yue Chinese will eventually be recognized.

Android in South East Asia

While the worldwide CTR for Android is down, however, the CTR for Android phones in South East Asia is far higher than for any other platform. Sadly, Smaato only publishes a comparative index doesn't release the actual click-through rates for all the ad networks it supports. Because of this, it isn't clear if this just means that the CTR for all the other platforms in South East Asia simply dropped, or if the usage patterns for Android phones in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are very different from the worldwide average.

Who Clicks on Mobile Ads? Symbian and Feature Phone Users

Surprisingly, users with Web-enabled feature phones are far more likely to click on ads than those on most smartphone platforms, even though the user experience is likely to be far inferior to clicking on an ad on a smartphone.

According to Smaato's analysis, Symbian users are more likely to click on ads while surfing the Web on their devices than users on any other platform. While we can only speculate as to why this is the case, chances are that this has more to do with the different user demographics than the actual user experience on these devices.

For more details from Smaato's report, including fill rates for different ad networks and data from previous reports, head over the company's website.

Applications that previously worked on Maemo or Moblin will work on the new MeeGo OS, too, say the companies. Also, the new platform is not intended to replace Nokia's own Symbian OS, Nokia assures. Instead, using the Qt application and UI framework, developers can deploy apps to both MeeGo and other platforms, including Symbian. The resulting applications will then be marketed through Nokia's Ovi Store, for all MeeGo and Symbian-based Nokia devices while Intel's AppUp Center will handle the marketing of apps for Intel-based MeeGo devices.

Open Source vs. iPhone OS...and More

Both companies are positioning the new OS an open source alternative to the iPhone App Store model. Although they don't come out and directly call out the popular Apple iPhone OS by name, they hint at it by stating that with MeeGo, people "are not locked into one kind of device or those from any individual manufacturer."

Both companies are also preparing for a new range of tablet devices that will compete against the trail-blazing iPad. In an interview with CNet, Renee J. James, a senior vice president at Intel, affirms that "this kind of operating environment is targeted very well for a tablet-style device."

However, the platform isn't meant to just compete with Apple products. It will also go up against the upcoming netbook OS from Google, Chrome OS, as well as mobile, tablet, and in-car OS's from other vendors, including Microsoft.

MeeGo will arrive in the second quarter of 2010 with products becoming available starting in the third quarter.

Once installed, HipLogic users can access the included free applications like Facebook, Twitter, CBS News and Sports, Entertainment Tonight, Disney, and WeatherBug as well as other various apps for monitoring news, finance information, and RSS feeds. As expected, the Facebook and Twitter applications allow for status updates, however they don't appear to be as robust as the applications found in either the Windows Mobile or Nokia Ovi stores. Take the Facebook application, for example. The Windows Mobile version integrates with the phone's camera for uploading of photos and videos. Nokia's app does the same. HipLogic's version, on the other hand, appears much more basic.

HipLogic, Before & After

In addition to the included applications, there's also a HipLogic app store where even more applications are found, both free and paid. The software also works as an alternative web browser of sorts as users can pull up a search box with a click and perform Google searches without ever having to launch the phone's browser.

Another App Store?

Given that some of the platforms HipLogic aims to support already offer their own application stores - and both Nokia and Windows Mobile allow background applications, too - it's somewhat confusing as to what problem HipLogic is trying to solve here. While it's true that HipLogic's software is designed to provide real-time notifications, those notifications will only appear when the alternative HipLogic UI is running.

On the plus side, however, HipLogic does provide one single access point for all your apps. When you launch HipLogic, you can get to everything that's been downloaded and when it's closed, you return to your phone's regular UI. And if the software, a JavaScript virtual machine platform, can be installed on more low-end "feature phones" in the future, it could indeed bring an iPhone-like app store to those who wouldn't otherwise have access to mobile applications.

Results were based on user-generated requests for mobile ads during April 2009 as well as on a Gartner report on smartphone sales in Q4 2008.

So, in the smartphone category, which devices were most conducive to consumer interest in ads? We're sure advertisers are dying to know, but this also gives a good picture of browser usability and speed as well as connection reliability.

The iPhone/iTouch group led the pack with 43 percent of mobile web and 65 percent of HTML requests, all on an 8 percent share of the smartphone market. Devices with the Android OS represented less than one percent of the market but accounted for three percent of mobile web and nine percent of HTML ad requests. Though none of us here majored in higher maths, we see this as a sign that if Android devices can capture more of the smartphone market, they might be able to outstrip Apple devices in mobile web use.

The disappointing underacheiver of the report was undoubtedly the Symbian OS, which had 52 percent of the smartphone market but generated only 36 percent of mobile web and 7 percent of HTML requests. This is a fairly good indicator that the Symbian OS might - just might - not be bringing the Internet to life in its truest, most usable form. Satisfied users of Symbian-running devices are invited to rebut this speculation in the comments.

The top devices for web use were from Apple, Sony (the PSP), and HTC.

Overall, smartphones' use of the mobile web (again, according to AdMob) as compared to all mobile devices is up about 10 percent from last year. However, Apple devices' domination of the market has slipped slightly over the past five months, falling from 48 to 43 percent of mobile web use for smartphones.

If you've been waiting a lifetime to get off Skyfire's waiting list, you don't have to wait any longer. With the release of version 0.8 of Skyfire, the application is now available to all Windows Mobile users with compatible devices. So what's new with the app itself?

• New Super Bar that combines search and URL entry into one bar
• Skyfire can now be set as the default browser
• New search bar on the Homescreen
• New start page redesign
• Faster start-up and page loading times
• Share a link via SMS
• Invite friends to download Skyfire via SMS
• Save an image
• Download files

One of the most popular capabilities that Skyfire has over Safari on the iPhone is the ability to play flash videos. This means you can browse popular video sites such as Youtube and Vimeo, or music sites such as Last.FM and Imeem, to play media clips on the go. Playback speed and quality has noticeably improved in the latest Skyfire update. With videos, the mobile browser's playback quality would suffer significantly when zooming into a video while it was playing. In our tests of the latest update, this bug seems to have been fixed and playback quality stayed the same when zooming in and out.

What we think will be a really popular new feature is Skyfire's ability to download files. You may be thinking that you can't download anything outside of a Word or PDF file. Well, you're wrong. We were able to download .mp3 files, Gmail attachments, .CAB files and more to our Windows Mobile handset. Skyfire lets you choose where to save a file and presents you with a progress view of your download. However, you won't be able to do anything else while the file is downloading.

Two Big Problems

We encountered a major bug that we feel users of Skyfire should be aware of. Before the update, if Skyfire lost service we would simply have to quit the application and restart it. In this update, Skyfire attempts to reconnect instead of dropping the connection completely. However, we never got the browser to reconnect. Instead, a continuous loop of reconnection attempts occured and we eventually had to exit the browser and restart it.

Another big problem with Skyfire is that there is still no option to import your Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) bookmarks. We deemed this to be a high-priority feature in our initial review of Skyfire. For new users, this will be very important and could be a deal breaker for those who live in their mobile browsers and have one too many bookmarks.

Even Better Than Before

Skyfire users will not be disappointed with the latest update. In fact, we feel the small changes that have been made will make the browsing experience with Skyfire even better! Symbian users can expect an update very soon, though Blackberry and Palm devices still aren't supported by Skyfire.

Web Products

Nokia Acquires Symbian; Takes on Google's Android

Nokia isn't finished with its acquisition spree just yet. This week the Finnish company announced a plan to acquire the 52 per cent of Symbian it doesn't already own and make the platform open source. Nokia clearly aims to challenge Android, the open source mobile operating system of Google. Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo says that it wants to create "the most attractive platform for mobile innovation and drive the development of new and compelling web-enabled applications".

See also: last100's analysis and Setbacks for Google's Android

Evernote Opens to All: Fantastic Promise, Disappointing Execution

The highly anticipated "memory augmentation" service Evernote opened to the public this week and you'll probably want to check this service out just to see what it tries to do. We may change our minds after more lengthy testing, but so far this combination of a bookmarking, note taking and photo cataloging service with apps for the desktop, web and mobile - not to mention the Optical Character Recognition powered search - adds up to a whole lot of potential ... and frustration.

Evri Beta Launches: Search Less - Understand More

Evri, a Paul Allen backed semantic search engine, launched into a limited beta this week. Evri was first shown publicly at the D6 conference. Evri's CEO Neil Roseman likes to talk about Evri in terms of organizing content instead of calling it a search engine. At its core, however, Evri definitely is a search engine, though it adds a very sophisticated semantic layer on top of its results that emphasizes the relationships between different search terms.

Facebook Targets Chinese Market

Social networking site Facebook has launched a Chinese-language version of its web site. Users logging into the site from the Chinese mainland are now being redirected to zh-cn.facebook.com, where users can choose between a version in simplified or traditional Chinese.

See also: China's Facebook Clones

LinkedIn and The Strange Case of The Disappearing (IPO) Market

Is LinkedIn worth $1bn? Yes. Why? Because Bain Capital says it is. The stock is not public, so you and I cannot trade it. The whole notion of the average punter trading tech stocks (or the average punter's pension fund trading it on your behalf) seems rather quaint, from some bygone era. But why has the public market for tech stocks disappeared? Where has it disappeared to? Will it ever return? The LinkedIn financing offers some clues to these questions.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

Web Trends

Yet Another Unsolicited Yahoo Turnaround Strategy - YAUYTS

Watching Yahoo's decline is rather sad. It is the result of nothing more or less than creative destruction. Meeting that challenge head-on is incredibly tough. Very, very few companies make the transition. IBM, led by Lou Gerstner, met the challenge of the PC era in his epic turnaround (described in the book Who Says Elephants Can't Dance). Microsoft has struggled mightily to remain relevant in the Web era and they are as smart and driven as it gets. What's so incredible is seeing the speed of these transitions - to see a big successful Web start-up like Yahoo marginalized by technology shifts.

Our Kids Are Failing - And It's All Wikipedia's Fault!

Talk about a knee-jerk reaction. This week news broke out in Scotland about how the internet was to blame for Scotland's failing exam pass rates. According to the Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC), Wikipedia, among other sources, was cited as the reason as to why the students were failing. Is this a case of the internet making us stupid? Or do students just need to learn how to use the new research tools of the web a little more appropriately?

Bored With Web 2.0? Demand Change

In April, Umair Haque posted a manifesto on his blog on the Harvard Business Publishing web site where he called for today's investors and start-ups to start building applications to "change the world" instead of just making apps that make money. He challenged Silicon Valley to find a problem to fix that will change the world for the better and then pledged that he would help by providing free consulting. Recently, he revisited this topic...

YouTube Continues to Destroy All Competitors in Declining Video Market

YouTube's huge lead in market share over other online video sites continues to get bigger, even as the over all video viewing market continues a decline. According to traffic analysts Hitwise, YouTube now sees 75.43% of traffic to the online video category; that's up 26% from it's May 2007 marketshare of 59.95%. The nearest competitor is still MySpaceTV, which was down a whopping 44% to 9% marketshare. (Full chart of top 5 sites below.) In April we reported that YouTube's dominance in online video was bigger than Google's dominance in search (67%). The new Hitwise numbers raise a number of questions for us.

See also: The Top 40 Online Video Producers in May - This List Might Surprise You

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

All of the major stakeholders in Symbian, including Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, and Siemens, have accepted the offer, representing approximately 91% of the Symbian shares.  Nokia doesn't have a definitive answer form Samsung Electronics yet, but expects them to accept the offer as well.  

As Techcraver.com points out, part of this move might be an answer to the delays Google's Android operating system is currently experiencing. But at the same time, this could also be driven by Nokia wanting to have more control over both the hardware and software side of its business, similar to how Apple has created its own operating system for the iPhone.

UPDATE: last100 has a great analysis of the deal.