OStatic

Nokia has just reported that it has received a $630 million loan from the European Investment Bank to help it develop the Symbian operating system and stay relevant in the increasingly competitive mobile operating system war. Looks like Nokia's move last summer to buy out the remaining shares of Symbian for $410 million was more prescient than many people realized. Along with that move, Nokia also put the Symbian operating system on an open source course. Just this week, at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, vendors lined up behind Symbian, LiMo's Linux-based operating system, and Android. $630 million is a lot of money. Will it change Symbian's fate, and how does it affect LiMo and Android?

Are we about to see more competitors pulling out of the mobile Linux race? Recently, researchers at J. Gold and Associates produced a report predicting that Google's Linux-based Android platform would merge with the new and open source mobile platform from Symbian,ﾠ pitting two huge Goliaths (Google and Nokia) against any Davids who might dare to produce Linux-based handsets. While it's pure speculation that that might ever happen, a sign of weakening confidence on the mobile Linux front has appeared: The Access Linux Platform's initial and only smartphone project was recently rubbished. Orange is bailing on its plan to deliver a Samsung smartphone running Access Linux.