Nokia buys "Smarterphone", makers of a feature phone operating system

It’s just been revealed that back in November of last year Nokia purchased a Norwegian software company called “Smarterphone”. The details of the transaction aren’t yet available, and there isn’t even a press release on Nokia’s website. The little information we do have comes from Smarterphone’s website. Egil Kvaleberg, CEO of Smarterphone, says:

“Globally, there are 4 billion mobile phone users. Despite all the attention given to high end smartphones, the majority of the 4 billion can not afford such a device. With Smarterphone OS, inexpensive phones can be smart, too. Their users are just as keen to have easy and natural access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as users of high end phones.”

The press release containing that quote says that Smarterphone is already up to version 3.0 and that it’s “optimized for phones in the $25 to $75 price segment”. This ties in really well with what we’ve been hearing about Nokia starting work on a new low end Linux based operating system for feature phones called Meltemi. Could Nokia have come to the conclusion that such a project would be too hard to do on their own so it’s simply easier to buy a competitor’s product? Or could Nokia simply have purchased Smarterphone so that they can can merge the work that’s already been done internally with what Smarterphone’s engineers have cranked out?

The questions don’t stop there however. What’s going to happen to Nokia’s Series 40 operating system that today powers devices in the price segment that Smarterphone occupies? Is it being thrown away? Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO, has always said that “the next billion” is a fundamental pillar of the company’s future, and this deal proves that they’re serious about that, but how long until we’ll see a Nokia device running Smarterphone’s software?

Hopefully we’ll get some answers at Mobile World Congress next month.

[Hat tip to Andreas Constantinou]

Update: This PDF document is a “brief version” of the list of features that Smarterphone has. It’s 9 pages long and reveals that there’s support for touch screen and QWERTY devices, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and even multitasking!

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

http://post404.com/ Randall Arnold

Ay yi yi… I realize there HAS to be a strategy somewhere in there but it’s getting harder to find!
Darkbrn

Isn’t it obvoius? Elop is making a space for Windows Phoney. And he will stop anything that could slow down WP “smartphone” part of market. So, Nokia will not have any own “smart” technology: it will be cheap & “smarter”… until it dies. And WP should be brand new technology leader… but in MS proprietary, not Nokia.
Prasenjit Bist

This is awesum Nokia will continue to eveolve symbian god knows may be symbian gets too gud and attractive to let go and may get rebranded too… any ways windows phone brings real strong assets that ppl crave for now untill a few yrs ago as Elop said its abt ecosystem now ppl not only want a N8 wid 12 Mp but also XBOX cloud office integrated social networking… and believe me windows phone is awesum it seems to be crafted for touch phones …. where apple left microsoft begun and Nokia is doing the perfect with sales marketing and glaobal reach with their stellar brand and Nokia awesum hardware mastery in design components and optics…. so when MS delivers in apps , ui and host of apps and services like integrated social ntwrking, xbox, office , skype etc.. nokia brings it to life with seductive hardware , great antennae performance, audio and industry leading optics and imaging technology that they have proved again and again….

just look at Nokia’s R&D its so focussed now they said they will make windows phone hardware and they are generating innovations like super hydrophobic phones, Rich audio, pure view pro, CBD etc etc… which will make Nokia’s attractive hardware even more attractive and MS is working to add more into OS … real game will begin when windows 8 comes out.

I also thank Nokia for not playing with the UI rather innovating. look wat samsung and HTC are doing creating their own UIs … wat a joke fragmenting the ecosystem and waste of time .

But Nokia is not messing with UI but complementing it with their lumia design languagew innovating on top of the platform in areas like LBS, MAps music where they truely make meaningful additions… the only place where Nokia is directly making changes to the OS is the camera app where Nokia certainly need more customizations to let user make full use of the hardware module of the camera …. Nokia has better proprietary image processinng algorithms so they are putting. Its a grand partnership of 2 mature talented minds.

MS failed with others cause those where stupid companies where as NOKIA is a worthy partner and together this ecosystem will win and prosper….

companies like samsung has nothing to add in camera they have no technical skill like NOKIA’s… no antennae patents like NOKIA’s no patents in any radio standard declared essential… so wat will the koreans do other than UI gimmicks but in UI too samsung copies… LOL

Okay now low end devices… Nokia with their foccused R&D will kill the low end OEMs once this meltemi comes out…..

Thank god !!! Nokia and Microsoft the 2 great companies have joined together, Thanks Nokia treated symbian as religiona and symbian will live till 201 and evolve, thanks Nokia has killed meego plans and decided that fuckin OS to be only kept as one device product support cause OPEN SOURCE SUCKS DAY IN DAY OUT………..

Thanks NOKIA has such grand plans for lowend…