Certain EU member states routinely pump funds into despotic regimes and cavort with arch terrorists. But it seems as if there is now an important new item on the agenda: keeping Symbian afloat.
Yes, never mind that the mobile operating system is fast losing ground to superior platforms such as iOS, Android and BlackBerry.
And let’s just forget about the tried and true concept of supply and demand. Meaning, if the operating system is sexy and versatile enough – people will want it.
Apple certainly gets it, especially the sexy part. Google groks it, with an emphasis on the open and versatile.
Even the corporate-oriented RIM grasps this basic idea, although obviously not as effectively as Club Cupertino and Mountain View.
But for some reason, the European Commission (EC) believes Symbian is a special, “unique technology” that remains a “vital focus” for European-centric mobile software development.
As such, EU member states have pledged a whopping €22million to create next-gen technologies for the ailing OS.
The EU has also formed a new consortium, named SYMBEOSE, or Symbian – the Embedded Operating System for Europe.
According to the Symbian Blog, the newly inaugurated SYMBEOSE will focus on “radically” improving the basis for new device creation on Symbian.
The consortium will also attempt to form a set of core platforms enablers capable of supporting next-gen mobile services and technologies, such as low-power sipping, fresh optimizations, asymmetrical multiprocessing and cloud computing.
A nobel endeavor, indeed.
Unfortunately, it is one that is quite likely to fail.
Yes, European consumers may be more tolerant of a nanny state than their US counterparts.
However, even they won’t be suckered into choosing a second-rate OS that is put to shame (on multiple levels) by the competition.
