Nokia acquires Trolltech, goes cross-platform

Nokia on Monday announced a potentially significant move to acquire Trolltech, a Norway-based software developer. The approximately $153 million deal gives Nokia access to Trolltech's Qt and Qtopia open-source software framework and should let the cellphone maker expand its services to work across multiple platforms; through the same architecture used by cross-OS software such as the Opera browser and Skype, services offered through the Ovi portal should work not just across Symbian series 40 and 60 handheld devices from Nokia but also computers running Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, the purchasing company says.

The agreement should also have Nokia contribute to the development of Qt and will see the company license Trolltech's code both commercially and through strictly open-source plans. Both firms expect the deal to be finished during the spring of 2008.

Nokia has been relatively cautious in expanding its services and has predominantly focused on devices alone, offering features such as its revived N-Gage gaming service and the Nokia Music Store primarily through its Nseries handsets and Windows PCs.

Filed under: industry, software
Other story tags: Nokia, Trolltech, Ovi