A week ago, I put together a roundtable about the upcoming mobile platform wars between the iPhone, Google’s Android, and older platforms like Nokia’s. One thing I discovered as I was organizing the event was that it was really hard to find anyone developing Android apps other than the 50 people who won the Android Developer’s Challenge. (We tried to get someone from Android on the panel, but Google declined to participate).

Most of the 20 CEOs, developers and VCs on the roundtable were more interested in the iPhone, Nokia, and other platforms that actually exist as something other than a software emulation. Their attitude seemed to be: Show me the phones.

Pandora CTO Tony Conrad went even further, saying, “I need Android like I need a hole in the head.” To which Michael responded: “As soon as it launches, you are going to be kissing Google’s ass and you are going to be launching on their platform.” Here’s a clip with Tony and Michael going at it:

Another debate was whether the iPhone is really anything new. AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui (in T-shirt) argued that it indeed represents a fundamental shift because it is the first time most people are actually using the mobile Web, regardless of how long it’s been around. (This was basically the premise of the panel). Skydeck CEO Jason Devitt (in striped shirt) pointed out that the existing mobile Web is already a fairly large market, citing a figure of $700 million spent on mobile games alone. Devitt, though, is old-school (he previously founded Vindigo), and even he admits that he doesn’t browse the Web on most phones other than the Phone:

[More videos after the break]:
Read More

Throw out that WAP browser on your cell phone. We are quickly approaching a point where a full browser experience is available on our mobile devices. And it is not just the iPhone. A startup called Skyfire is in some respect even further along than Apple in bringing the entire Web to your phone. Its mobile browser lets you slide Web pages around and zoom in like with the mobile version of Safari. But it also supports Flash and Ajax sites. (It does this by offloading most of the heavy lifting to its servers rather than the mobile client). That means you can watch Youtube videos and go to Google Maps right in the mobile browser instead of having to download separate apps. In contrast, the iPhone’s Safari browser still does not support Flash and so to watch a a video you have to launch the separate Youtube app.

As it becomes possible to do more and more inside the mobile browser itself, it raises the question of whether that indeed is the killer app for mobile Web phones. For the most part, you still get a richer experience by downloading a separate single-purpose app to your phone. But efforts like Skyfire’s point to a future where that may no longer be necessary for all but the most sophisticated apps and games.

Skyfire launched on Windows Mobile, but as of today it is also available in a private beta for Nokia phones running Symbian’s S60 operating system. The first 200 TechCrunch readers to sign up for the beta here will get invites (enter invite code: Tcrunch).

I just tried it on a Nokia N95, and watching video in the browser looks great as long as you are connected via WiFi. As 3G networks become a reality, that should change (although I am supposedly on AT&T’s 3G network in New York City, and videos take so long to load that they are basically unwatchable at this point). And I still prefer the speed of the Safari browser overall in terms of responsiveness. But for other mobile platforms, Skyfire is going to give mobile browsers like Opera’s a run for their money. And if Apple ever actually allows another browser on the iPhone, it could add some much needed competition there as well.

The company recently raised $13 million in a series B round from Lightspeed, Matrix, and Trinity. Below is a video demo of Skyfire on Windows Mobile:

Nokia doesn’t want to miss the next wave of mobile technologies so it is doubling down on its venture investment activities. The cell phone giant is putting another $150 million to work in Nokia Growth Partners, a fund in which it is the only limited partner. This brings the total capital in the fund to $250 million (Nokia initiated the fund with $100 million in 2004). That is in addition to a $100 million fund of funds also run by Nokia Growth Partners on behalf of Nokia, which is used to sprinkle cash around to other VC firms.

So far the fund has done best investing in mobile chip companies, some of which have been acquired by ATI (BitBoys for $44 million), Broadcom (Global Locate for $143 million), and Dolby (Coding Technologies for $250 million). But it is also an investor in mobile video service Kyte. Generally, it is a alter-stage growth fund that looks for companies with a product ready to ramp up.

The new cash comes at a time when the mobile Web is generating excitement again in Silicon Valley. Most of that excitement right now surrounds the iPhone. Throwing around a little cash to encourage startups to develop cutting-edge apps for Nokia phones is not a bad strategy. The fund will also invest more heavily in China and India, where mobile growth far outstrips the U.S.

Open operating systems, for most folks, means that the operating system is essentially free. The average computer user knows that Linux is free, as in beer, while Windows costs money. The case is the same for mobile OSes although, until very recently, the idea of purposely using an open OS has been a fairly nebulous concept.

To be clear open mobile OSes have been around for years, starting most prominently with the QTopia project that ran on ARM hardware found in many PDAs and phones. The Linux kernel plays well with almost any platform, making it ideal for small installations.

With the announcement of an “open” version of Symbian coming soon, let’s take a look at what open means to the average consumer.

Android – Google’s smartphone OS is probably about as open as you can get. It’s designed to run on almost any hardware and includes a fully open and free UI complete with source code. It costs nothing for carriers to use and if, if used in its official form, simply brings Google apps and content to the fore at opportune times. To the average consumer Android should be able to add smartphone functionality to a number of odd devices, including phones that once depended on proprietary, no-name operating systems like the Motorola RAZR.

iPhone OSX – iPhone’s OSX uses a Mach kernel which, like Linux, is fairly open and well-documented. Unlike Linux, however, the price of the iPhone’s kernel is bundled into the cost of the actual phone and cannot be sold to third parties. The SDK or programming tools for the OS, however, are quite popular and are free. This ensures that programmers can harness the full power of the OS without having to dig too deeply into the core. As a whole, OS X is as close to being open as you can get without really being “open” and fully cross-platform.

Windows Mobile – Windows Mobile is a closed operating system. The common user interface remains unchanged across devices, however, third-party applications can be developed by writing programs using software like Visual C++. Windows Mobile also makes use of the .NET Compact Framework, which is similar to the .NET Framework found on Windows-based PCs.

Symbian – Currently, the Symbian operating system is not classified as open source, although with Nokia’s recent announcement, it will soon be available under the royalty-free Eclipse Public License. As it stands now, though, handset manufacturers that make use of the Symbian operating system are only provided with certain parts of the source code. It is expected to be fully opened up within the next two years. Symbian is the most widely used mobile operating system in the world today.

One interesting aside: there is an excellent chance that Symbian will not make it through its conversion to openness alive. The OS is old and crotchety, unable to handle data intensive applications with the same aplomb RIM or even the iPhone OS have. Once the platform is open, Nokia will most likely put it out to pasture, watch as the developers branch it off, and then build something entirely new. As popular as it is, I doubt many of us would miss Symbian’s various foibles and flaws.

Nokia has today announced that they will be acquiring the remaining 52% of Symbian they don’t own and will be releasing the complete Symbian platform under the Eclipse open source license. Nokia have also announced the creation of the Symbian Foundation, which is an alliance of mobile vendors and application providers that any company can join.

Continue reading on TechcrunchIT.com >>

Berlin, Germany based Plazes, a location based social network (and one of the first startups we ever wrote about here on TechCrunch, back in 2005), has been acquired by Finland-based Nokia, the companies are announcing today. The price is not being disclosed.

We most recently wrote about Plazes new iPhone application in May 2008, which will take advantage of the cutting edge location technologies available on the phone (cell triangulation and GPS). The company has raised a total of €3.7 million in venture financing over two round, although the last round was closed in February 2007.

This is the second “mobile social network” in Europe to be acquired in as many months – Danish startup ZYB was acquired by Vodafone in May for €31.5 million.

Co-founder Felix Petersen told me in a hastily scheduled phone call that the company will maintain its Berlin office and all thirteen employees. The Plazes product will become Nokia’s Services & Software unit.

In 2006 Nokia acquired Berlin based Gate5 for a rumored $250 million and turned the product into Nokia Maps, which is deployed in 300 markets. Petersen says the success of that acquisition gave Plazes a lot of comfort in working with Nokia.

As a funny aside, a year ago Petersen was busted by his own product as he avoided one conference to attend another.

Update: by Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK: My industry sources are telling me that this was a smart acquisition for Nokia, which needed to have a consumer based offering outside the rigid maps infrastructure they have, since the purchase last year of Navteq.

There is also a local story here. The Plazes office is in Berlin, physically close to the Gate 5 people, and we know from good authority that Gate 5 people are highly respected on the Berlin scene. It’s therefore likely that they had a lot to do with the acquisition thinking inside Nokia as they know the guys from Plazes.

From what we know about Nokia, the purchase of Plazes fits in with their strategy in terms of context and location and what to do with it. Put together the Ad system they have, and they control a strong section of the mobile ecosystem from ad generation, delivery through branded channels, with good profile information about the user, especially since most new handsets from Nokia now have GPS built in.

Here are some initial shots of the CrunchNetwork May 1 meet-up — an event, I might add, that went off without a hitch. The attendees enjoyed fine beverage, a real Rock Band band made up of members of the Harmonix team, which is like getting Tim Berners-Lee to fix your Internet. A great time was had by all and watch CrunchGear for more shots. Thanks to Nokia for hooking us up.

Nokia has announced its intention to make Microsoft Silverlight available for S40 and S60 phones, along with Nokia Internet tablets.

The decision strengthens Silverlights position as a competitor to Flash, but more importantly (as I noted perhaps prematurely last week) readies Microsoft’s Silverlight platform for the one game that’s new enough that it might have a hope in winning: offline apps up against Adobe’s AIR platform. Rumor has it that we may well see an offline Silverlight announcement at Microsoft Mix this week.

Microsoft will be demonstrating Silverlight on a S60 at the first Mix keynote tomorrow. Presuming there’s internet access (there was this morning) tune in to TechCrunch at 9:30 PST Wednesday where I’ll be live blogging the first keynote featuring Ray Ozzie, Scott Guthrie, Dean Hachamovitch from the floor.

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has acquired Norwegian platform application development provider Trolltech for $153 million.

Trolltech is the developer of Qt, the cross-platform application development framework used for the development of GUI programs and for developing non-GUI programs such as console tools and servers. Qt is used in by Opera, Google Earth and Skype among others.

The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval and final closure, with 66.43% of shareholders having already accepted the bid.

Nokia said that the acquisition will allow it “to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business.” The interesting part (did someone say Android?):

With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia’s device portfolio and on PCs. Nokia’s software strategy for devices is based on cross-platform development environments, layers of software that run across operating systems, enabling the development of applications across the Nokia device range. Examples of current cross-platform layers are Web runtime, Flash, Java and Open C.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2008.

(via Engadget)

Telecommunications solutions supplier Nokia Siemens has acquired mobile network management provider Apertio For €140 million.

Bristol, UK based Apertio provides customer management tools to mobile operators, as well as “convergence” tools that enable the delivery of multimedia content to handsets. Apertio’s “One” suite also caters to the growing Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) market.

Apertio software is currently used by carriers including Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone and the company has offices in the United States, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia and China.

The acquisition is expected to be finalized prior to the end of the first quarter.

If things go well, we might finally see that Gphone by the middle of next year. Google is in heated talks with wireless carriers in the U.S., including Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, (and Vodafone internationally) to carry the Gphone, reports the WSJ. Google already competes (and cooperates) with some of these carriers. It recently fought with Verizon, for instance, over the rules of the upcoming 700 Mhz wireless spectrum auctions, while it is partnering with Sprint on its upcoming Wimax network. The only carrier not mentioned is AT&T, which carries the iPhone.

When the Gphone does come out, chances are that there won’t be just one Gphone, but many. In the next two weeks, Google is also expected, says the WSJ, “to announce new software and services that handset makers could use to build customized Google-powered phones.” Just as in social networking, Google wants to make mobile phones an open platform that developers can build lots of applications on top of. We may very well see a mobile 2.0 platform war brewing between the Gphone, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Nokia’s Ovi.

Nokia officially announced its latest pocket computer, the N810. It’s got a full slide-out keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, the works, and is due out next month for $479. Nokia has more like this coming. It now thinks of the phone as a computer, and its goal is to sell it not just to geeks and early adopters but to the mass audience as well. The N810 is its latest step in that direction. Crunchgear has more photos.

The real news, though, is around Nokia’s efforts to build its Ovi platform. Ovi is a set of APIs that Nokia is using to create mobile Web services for its phones, including the N810. And it wants other developers to do the same. So it is supporting Ovi in its developer tools that 3.5 million mobile-phone programmers are already using today. The race for the mobile 2.0 development platform is on.

Nokia is buying digital mapmaker Navteq for $8 billion. (See WSJ coverage here).  Navteq powers many in-car navigation services, but it is also one of the providers of mapping data used in Google Maps. Every mobile device should include mapping services. It’s a natural fit. But will Nokia try to charge extra for this or will every future Nokia phone come with free maps?

You can already get Navteq-powered Google Maps on many phones today like the iPhone or the Blackberry. It’s becoming a killer app for phones. Nokia could try to charge Google a whole lot more for the Navteq maps, but that might just drive Google deeper into the arms of its other map vendor, Tele Atlas.

The smart move for Nokia would be to negotiate with Google to share in any future map-based advertising revenues in return for distributing the mobile version of Google Maps with every new Nokia phone. (The cell phone carriers would have to be brought into the negotiations and given a cut as well, but it could be done). That way, consumers would get free maps and a reason to stick with Nokia. And Nokia won’t have to try to beat Google at its own game. Google has a much better chance of figuring out mobile advertising than Nokia, and its mapping software already has a huge following among both consumers and developers.

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Enpocket.

Boston based Enpocket provides technology and services centered on mobile advertising. Enpocket’s platform delivers mobile advertising across multiple formats including SMS, MMS, mobile Internet advertising, and video.

Nokia said in a statement that the acquisition will allow it to accelerate the scaling of its mobile advertising business by leveraging Enpocket’s platform and strong partnerships with advertisers, publishers and operators.

Enpocket competes with companies including Third Screen Media, now owned by AOL, Screentonic (acquired by Microsoft) and the Sequoia Capital backed AdMob.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.