Analysis Nokia’s ambitious bid to make the mobile phone as important a client device for business and leisure as the notebook PC took another important turn last week with news that it has created a browser in collaboration with Apple, which will be managed under the open source process.

This starts to address awkward web browsing, a key weakness of the phones bid to be the new notebook, and it raises interesting questions about how much further Nokia and Apple could go in cooperating on the anti- Microsoft ecosystem, and how far Nokia is committing its future to Linux.

Nokia aims significantly to broaden the influence of its Series 60 software architecture to bring it closer to the role taken by the Windows/Visual .Net environment on PCs. Like Microsoft, this will entail making a decision on whether to keep its software platforms closely tied to its OS, or whether to move on to other systems too.

Nokia has worked with Apple to create a mobile browser for the Finnish company Series 60, the user interface layer that is critical to its plans to set standards for enterprise mobile devices and to create a developer ecosystem that can rival that of Microsoft Visual .Net.

In its bid to establish Series 60 devices as dominant in the next generation of client platforms, Nokia is increasingly looking to the open source community, into which it will place the new browser. Coupled with the recent launch of Nokia Linux/Wi-Fi tablet product, this suggests a shift away from backing Symbian OS as the only operating system for smart phones, and towards promoting Series 60 and Java on multiple platforms, notably Linux.

This will help to accelerate the creation of a developer community for Series 60, and will please Nokia key enterprise partner IBM. A strong web experience is vital to make the handset appeal as a business data tool and has so far been a weakness that Apple%u2019s Safari technology could help to address. It is likely that other Apple expertise, in areas such as Wi-Fi and user interfaces, will be tapped by Nokia, and it is also possible that Nokia will create an iPhone and help take Apple devices back into the enterprise.

To expand Series 60, it is making several key moves that would have been alien to it a couple of years ago licensing the platform to other phone makers, working increasingly within the open source process, and adopting technologies from companies in the consumer space to strengthen its own R&D. All this will enhance the value and appeal of Series 60 to the developer community that is critical for gaining broad uptake for any mobile platform.