ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

"A combination of the Android and Symbian efforts would be good for the industry, good for Google and good for Symbian," Gold adds. "It would also help spur growth in the availability of applications and services. The downside is minimal. Everyone wins."

This would pose a challenge to Apple. "Not licensing the OS to other manufacturers is exactly what hurt Mac against Windows on the PC," Gold says. "The parallel to iPhone is striking."

Go Android
Go Symbian Goes Open