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Metrowerks abandons Symbian? Symbian endorses Metrowerks?

It's not easy to be sure which way to read this: Nokia is ramping up its Symbian development tools portfolio, by buying the set that Metrowerks offered.

But is Metrowerks carrying on with it? It seems not. According to the official release it's a "transfer of application development technology to Nokia" rather than a simple licensing deal.

"Upon completion of the acquisition, the development and support resources of the Metrowerks tools portfolio for the Symbian OS will be transitioned to Nokia. In addition, Nokia will make employment offers to approximately two-dozen Metrowerks employees, who are experts in these products."

In other words, Metrowerks is pulling out of Symbian development? Not entirely: "Metrowerks plans, upon closing of the agreement, to license its core technologies, including its debugger, compiler and award winning CodeWarrior Integrated Development Environment to Nokia," said the announcement.

Certain extensions to that core technology related to the Symbian OS will be transferred to Nokia. "Nokia intends to invest in the platform-specific technologies, and also add new features and support to the newly acquired tools. At the same time, Metrowerks will continue to invest in and extend its core technologies."

It's hard to avoid the feeling that Metrowerks saw no future in this market. Whether that was because it saw Nokia taking over control, or whether Nokia took over control because it saw Metrowerks faltering, or some other reason (like, Metrowerks wanting to stamp its future with the Palm brand development tools?) we may never be entirely sure.

In public, of course, it's all enthusiasm: "Metrowerks is committed to working closely with Nokia to enhance and extend support for the Symbian platform with world class core technology," said Matt Harris, President and CEO, Metrowerks. "This deal is great news for the Symbian OS development community, and it gives Metrowerks core technology a significant position in Nokia's wireless development tools portfolio."