Nokia claims it remains committed to the Qt apps development platform, despite agreeing to sell the commercial licensing and services arm of the business
The Finnish vendor claims selling the division to domestic software firm Digia will result in better services for companies using Qt for business applications. Digia will take over the running of current contracts, licensing, and back-up and support services when the deal closes, which is scheduled to happen by the end of the month.
Sebastian Nyström, who heads up Nokia’s MeeGo, Qt and WebKit divisions, states the vendor decided to offload professional services because they are “not core business activities,” for the firm. He said the firm remains committed to Qt in the long term, and will continue to “actively support” users and the MeeGo platform “as we are today.”
A spokesperson told Telecoms Europe.net the vendor’s “strong commitment to Qt is not affected by this change.” The firm will “continue to invest in developing Qt for the benefit of all users,” and the platform will remain “the sole application development framework for Symbian and MeeGo.”
The decision to sell the commercial arm of the business – acquired when Nokia bought Trolltech for $153 million (€109 million) in 2008 – comes less than a month after technology chief Rich Green noted that Qt and QML are “healthy and long lived, period.”
Green was outlining the role of Qt in future developments of Nokia’s MeeGo tablet operating system and its place in the current Symbian ecosystem.