http://www.theinquirer.net/

As the  dust begins to settle on the unexpected decision by Nokia to transform the Symbian OS – along with its S60 platform – into an open source product, it’s apparent the change will be far from immediate.

The first hurdle to be overcome is the fact that Nokia’s purchase of the minority shareholders’ stakes in Symbian for some £209 million ($ 412 million) has to get passed regulatory approvals. It’s hardly likely to fail but the whole process will take time.

The second hurdle is turning a proprietary OS – which has lots of embedded technologies provided by other parties – into open source code is not going to be a simple process.

Symbian’s head of strategy, John Forsyth, didn’t know of a project of this size to take proprietary code into the public domain. The INQ believes that IBM did something similar a while back. Maybe INQ readers may recall this.

The net result is that the new Symbian Foundation platform probably won’t emerge until Q3-Q4 2009. So Google with its Android platform may have some breathing space after all.

The INQ tried to discover how much a handset vendor might save once Symbian becomes truly royalty-free. The company pointed out that the current pricing model is $7.25 per unit for the first two million handsets sold.

After that it is $5 for every handset sold but with the possibility that royalties could get as low as $2.50. In today’s economic climate that’s a welcome bonus. Symbian obviously hopes that the OS will eventually be found inside billions of handsets not just the 200 million or so which, to date, have used this OS.

There are also heavy hints as to why the Symbian has chosen Eclipse Public Licence (EPL) as the means of releasing code into the open source environment. Reading between the lines, EPL makes it easier to differentiate between what’s been released and what others add to it afterwards.

The real motivation behind Nokia’s move and the whole Symbian Foundation movement is still very hazy. One reason, however, is costs. And the cost of developing innovative mobile apps in particular.

As John Forsyth put it, “It’s just too damn expensive to make phone software. And this is currently true whatever platform you use and whether it carries a royalty or not.” That’s obviously a reference to both Symbian and Windows Mobile.

The INQ is also puzzled as to what will happen to all those working on technologies that will be folded into the Symbian Foundation. UIQ, for example, confirmed that its UI won’t be offered as a separate commercial product in future. But the the company didn’t go as far as saying they’ve all become Nokia employees.

The most puzzling comment concerned whether developers will have to learn C++ or Java just to be able to develop for the Symbian Foundation. Apparently there will be “support for runtimes.” Whatever that might mean.

What’s clear is that this great seachange in mobile software doesn’t just puzzle outside observers, it had been kept so secret that many of the employees involved will be contemplating their fate over beers tonight. µ