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Nokia is buying the 52% of Symbian that it didn’t own, and spinning off the mobile software company into a new entity called the Symbian Foundation. Sony Ericcson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo are the other partners in a long-needed effort to reunite the various forks of the world’s most popular mobile phone operating system. AT&T, LG, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments. and Vodafone have commited themselves to the new effort. Samsung is also expected to join the foundation. See this article from the Associated Press for more information.

Related articles and pages on billso.com

• iPhone
• 20 April 2008: Mobile phones - the cure for global poverty?
• 21 February 2008: Nokia brings back N-GAGE
• 20 February 2008: Mobile phone platform wars
• 25 January 2008: Nokia claims 40 percent market share
• 20 January 2008: Nokia, Sprint announce layoffs

Motorola announced last month that it wants to sell its mobile phone unit, which is ranked third in global market share, according to Engadget.

No one’s buying. This month, several companies including Samsung and Dell have announced that they are not interested in laying out US$9 to 12 billion for the business.

It’s a bit of a shock. The Motorola brand name is well known, and the company has remained competitive. Certainly some up-and-coming manufacturer would want that nameplate! It’s the kind of play that made sense a few years ago, when Chinese manufacturer Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal computer business, including the ThinkPad name.

Motorola executives backpedaled last week at the Mobile World Congress, announcing that the company remains committed to the mobile handset industry.

Last Monday, Microsoft purchased Danger, the developer of T-Mobile’s Sidekick line. Om Malik estimated that Microsoft paid US$500 million for a mobile handset line that has a decent market share among the under-30 crowd.

From the Register: Nokia has achieved a new milestone by posting a 40.2 percent share of the global mobile phone market.

This is a massive market, as mobile phone adoption continues to surpass personal computer sales in many regions. The estimated total shipments for 2007 was 1.13 billion mobile phones, with a 12 percent growth forecast for 2008.

Results for the fourth quarter of 2007 were as follows, according to a press release from Strategy Analytics. Figures are in millions of units:

2.3: Apple iPhone
23.7: LG
30.8: Sony Ericsson
40.9: Motorola
46.9: Samsung
133.5: Nokia

EarthLink, the primary contractor for Honolulu’s municipal WiFi project in Chinatown, is laying off more than 900 employees and closing 4 offices, according to news reports. This is a massive cut that affects almost half of the company and several business units.

In one of yesterday’s posts, I discussed some of the changes in the wireless Internet industry. EarthLink’s retrenchment in municipal WiFi was announced earlier this year, when the company said it wouldn’t pursue new contracts until it had a better idea of the financial returns on current projects. Sprint’s recent alliance with ClearWire, Google’s continued efforts in mobile applications and wireless access, and the stagnating economy are other factors that have affected EarthLink’s competitive position.

Helio hath no fury… or market share

It isn’t the WiFi market that’s hurting EarthLink, though. The company’s investment in Helio has not worked out well. I mentioned Helio on June 17 and April 17. The iPhone and the industry’s various responses to that service have put Helio in a lousy position for a startup company. According to The Register, Verizon is moving fast with its new offerings, with some help from Samsung.

Tech: Yahoo! News - iPod Alternatives Shaking Up Market: “In August, the companies plan to start selling the $299 MP3Run PSA260 player, which measures the duration and pace of your workout. The disc-shaped MP3Run comes with a separate dongle device that tracks the speed and distance of your run and sends the information wirelessly to the player. Runners, who clip the dongle to their sneakers, can receive audio alerts. ‘You have your own coach with you in the product,’ said Levitan, who also pointed out other runner-centric features like a flashing strobe and the ability to operate it without having to look at it…

Samsung began selling the $230 YP-60 player, no larger than two packs of chewing gum, that also comes with a heart monitor and a calorie counter. Like the upcoming Nike player, Samsung’s lets users upload workout data onto a home computer as a way to keep closer tabs on fitness progress.”