Nokia adds to Symbian development tools

Nokia has agreed on a deal to acquire core Symbian applications development tools from Metrowerks Corporation, an independent subsidiary of Freescale Semiconductor.

The two firms said that the deal will help developers build a broader and more versatile pool of applications for Symbian-based platforms such as Series 60, 80 and 90, and Symbian UIQ.

Under the terms of the agreement Nokia will acquire the development and support resources of the Metrowerks tools portfolio for the Symbian operating system.

In addition the mobile giant has promised to make employment offers to approximately 24 Metrowerks employees.

Metrowerks plans to license its core technologies to Nokia, including its debugger, compiler and CodeWarrior IDE.

In addition "certain extensions to that core technology related to the Symbian OS" will be transferred to Nokia.

"This agreement illustrates Nokia's commitment to Symbian as the best operating system for advanced mobile devices as well as our support to Symbian as the leading mobile platform for device creation and application development," said Nokia chief technology officer Pertti Korhonen in a statement.

The closing of the transaction, subject to customary conditions, is expected during the fourth quarter of 2004.