OStatic

According to a report from Reuters, Nokia has denied recent reports that it plans to release a phone running the Android operating system. The Guardian had posted a puzzling story on how Nokia would do a strategic U-turn from its focus on Symbian-based phones to Android. Absolutely no truth to this whatsoever, a Nokia spokesman told Reuters. The spokesman also emphasized that Symbian remains Nokia's preferred platform, and, as we reported last week, Symbian will soon begin beta testing of its Symbian 2 open source operating system.

Yesterday, we covered Juniper Research's findings on the prospects for open source operating systems on smartphones, which it deems to be rosy. Juniper is predicting that open source smartphone shipments will double from 106 million this year to 223 million by 2014. In our post yesterday, though, I made the point that the Android operating system isn't even mentioned in Juniper's announcement, while Symbian, LiMo and others are.?

When it comes to Symbian, many observers have noted that ever since June 2008, when Nokia announced that the Symbian platform would be open sourced, very little seems to have happened. Symbian owns about 50 percent of the global handheld market. So where is the open source push that everyone was expecting? There are some answers to that question emerging, and Symbian's impact on smartphones could be much bigger than many are predicting.

Despite the lagging economy, smartphones remain a hot market, and open source phones are in the spotlight. According to research from Juniper Research telecom consultants, the number of smartphones shipped with open source operating systems will increase from 106 million this year to 223 million by 2014. Juniper's study found that open source operating systems and applications are playing an increasingly important role in the differentiation of new smartphones and are a key factor in the choice of which handset to choose from by users. Juniper's findings are being echoed by other researchers.