Nokia and Trolltech announce union

Interesting news out of Helsinki: Nokia has decided to get on the acquisition trail and snap up Trolltech, which it reckons will help it “accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business”.

Nokia goes on to say that the deal will help the competitiveness of S60 and series 40, and that it will be backing Trolltech’s Qt. All that, and for the bargain price of 16 Norwegian crown a share.

Trolltech is of course best known for its work with the Greenphone and open source development. Nokia has dabbled a little in the world of open source with its own variant of Linux called Maemo for its range of internet tablets. Does the Trolltech buy signal a move towards Linux at the expense of Symbian? Unlikely. But fingers crossed it means that we’ll be seeing an expanded range of devices that go beyond Nokia’s stock-in-trade candy bar.