Nokia acquires open-source firm Trolltech
The Qt components make it easier to build software that runs on many operating systems.
(Credit: Trolltech)Finnish mobile-phone giant Nokia has acquired Norway's Trolltech for about $150 million, the companies said Monday.
The Nordic merger significantly expands the possibilities of Nokia's Linux-based phone efforts. Trolltech makes open-source software and programming tools that can be used to build software on mobile phones, and Nokia has been working for years on mobile Linux devices.
In the open-source programming realm, Trolltech is known well for its Qt library of user interface components such as buttons and drop-down menus. While Qt is governed by the General Public License (GPL), the elements also may be used in proprietary programming projects. Using the components also makes it easier to build software that runs on multiple operating systems.
Indeed, Nokia--which must reckon with many operating systems already--evidently sees that advantage. "The acquisition of Trolltech will enable Nokia to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications and develop its Internet services business," the company said in a statement. "With Trolltech, Nokia and third-party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia's device portfolio and on PCs."
Nokia also went out of its way to reassure open-source fans that it won't be dropping Trolltech's open-source ways. "Nokia embraces open-source technology and will take further the open-source development culture found in Trolltech," the company said.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank.
- Every reason they stated
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by The_Decider
January 28, 2008 10:04 AM PST
- Could have been accomplished by just buying licenses.
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- Not so expensive
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by Mystigo
January 28, 2008 11:05 AM PST
- Qt is expensive, but for my company, where we use it in multiple
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(3 Comments)Trolltech is one of the more greedier "open source" companies.
Look at the pricing structure for QT. Outrageously expensive. QT is a good product but should be well under $500 for the proprietary version and the OSS version should be LGPL like wxWidgets.
products, it is well worth the price.
My concern is that Nokia will short change the Windows and Mac
versions of Qt. We don't even develop for Linux. Without full and
ongoing support for both Windows and Mac, the product has far
less value to us.