Nokia to sell Qt to Diggia

With Nokia gearing up to focus on Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, it is in the process of disposing of its Qt commercial licensing and services business to Finnish company Digia.

Qt, a cross-platform application and user interface framework allows developers to write and deploy applications across desktop, mobile and embedded OSes without rewriting source code.

However, Nokia is selling only the part of the QT business that does commercial licensing and related services, while retaining the software. The company is in the process of moving the development of Qt to an open governance model, according to the plan announced in June, but which is still ongoing. According to Mark Durrant, there was no date for its finalisation.

Meanwhile, according to a spokesman, Digia plans to push Qt on desktops and embedded systems, from where it hopes to leverage the biggest potential for commercial growth. The deal envisages moving 3,500 desktop and embedded Qt customers to Digia. According to a statement, the company has plans to employ 19 Nokia staff that would work in consulting, sales and marketing. According to a Nokia blog post, Nokia's Qt technical support team would also work with Digia for the next year.

At the time of announcing the switch to Windows Phone as its primary smartphone OS, Nokia had clarified that Qt would not be ported to Microsoft's smartphone OS. The platform would continue to be the development framework for Symbian and MeeGo. Nokia, though, is not expected to introduce Qt to Windows Phone, to avoid fragmenting that environment, a company spokesman said in an e-mail message at the time of the announcement with Microsoft.

Nokia would continue with the use of Symbian as it transitions to Windows Phone, while the Qt platform would also be part of Nokia's "future disruptions strategy," an effort to develop products for the next generation of mobile devices.