Nokia dumps Qt

Nokia has sold the Qt business to Digia including 125 staff mainly from Oslo and Berlin. Digia had already purchased the Qt licensing business from Nokia in March 2011.

Qt is a cross platform set of libraries allowing developers to use the same front-end code for MacOS X, Windows and Linux (as well as other embedded system like Symbian, INFINITY, VxWORKS and QNX). Qt was originally developed by Trolltech which Nokia bought in 2008.

Nokia has lost its way in recent years having dropped its lead in the mobile phone markets (though it still has a large base in 3rd world countries) as is now concentrating on a smartphone market using Microsoft Windows Phone.

Digia is hoping to further develop Qt which has been used by over 450,000 developers and Digia is hoping to rapidly support MS Windows 8, Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

The commercial version of Qt will be maintained at Digia and the open-source variant at Qt-Project.

Nokia port Qt to Maemo

Nokia have ported Qt (the multi-system GUI layer) to Maemo which is the operating system that runs on their tablets such as the N900. Nokia previously purchased Trolltech who produce Qt which now runs on various UNIX like operating system, MacOS X and Windows and of course Symbian.

The Maemo port means there's a consistent programming interface for Nokia's main platforms and it means programs can easily be ported across systems.

The Maemo version should come out by the end of the year (for V5 of Maemo) and the Symbian version will follow.