Nokia to buy out Trolltech

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I'm a commercial user of Trolltech's Qt on Windows. I got this in the inbox today:
28 January 2008

Dear Customer,

Today, Nokia has made a public tender offer for all the shares in Trolltech.
We think this is great news for both you and us.

In Trolltech, we have for a long time had a vision of “Qt Everywhere”. Being acquired* by Nokia, we will continue to provide you with the most advanced cross-platform software framework for desktop and devices in the market. There will be further investments in Qt and Qtopia and an even better long-term security in your decision to choose Trolltech for your business.

We are confident that with Nokia we can accelerate our cross-platform software capabilities and grow Qt and Qtopia significantly in desktop and mass-volume device markets. The plan is that we will continue our current organizational setup, operating inside Nokia as a distinct unit.

Nokia is already using Qt for its PC Suite, and they aim to significantly expand the use of these technologies moving forward. In addition to pursuing new opportunities related to Nokia’s business focus, we will invest to continuously deliver world leading software in accordance to your needs.

In order to further stimulate industry innovation, Nokia will, as Trolltech has done throughout the history, continue to drive the licensing of Trolltech technology under both commercial and open source licenses.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at sales@trolltech.com.

Best regards,

Trolltech ASA
I believe the purchase of Trolltech by Nokia is the best thing that could happen to both. In particular I sincerely hope that Nokia replaces their GTK-based UI on their 770/800/810 web tablets with Qtopia. I have always felt that Qtopia is very superior to Hildon, in much the same way I've felt KDE was very superior to Gnome.

Here's to great(er) things from the combined forces of Nokia and Trolltech.

Update

Well I got my answer to what Nokia will do with the N810. According to an article on ZDNet.co.uk:
Nokia's intention is to use Trolltech's technology to develop its next generation of software horizontally across "all the major software platforms in the world", said Öistämö, who specified Series 60, Series 40, Windows Mobile, Apple OS X and Linux. However, he stressed that Nokia's existing Linux-based devices, such as the N810 tablet, would continue to use the Gnome environment rather than KDE.
I guess that still means no N810 for me. Pity.

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