Nokia wants to build its edge through cross-platform software, and has done a deal to acquire Trolltech (via Engadget).
I have known Trolltech as the company behind the excellent Qt toolkit which powers my favorite desktop environment KDE. But it also has its counterpart for the mobile world - Qtopia. Trolltech has gone ahead and used this to build Greenphone, a Linux mobile development device. I am sure Nokia will like to take advantage of integration of these technologies.
An interesting aspect of this deal will be that Nokia will own open source products, since Qt and Qtopia, both are open sourced. Nokia has been releasing Linux phones, but owning open source development toolkits would be different.
Matt Assay wonders if this is about the trend of proprietary companies killing the open source world. Maybe! But this might also be about proprietary companies transforming into open source companies.
Though this deal might not show big numbers, I think this will impact the mobile world in a big way. I also hope that open source cross-platform development will push the need for interoperability and standards.
