Sony Networked Application Platform (also referred to as SNAP), was Sony’s plan to leverage the open source community to give them an alternative to Apple’s iOS Cocoa Touch development frameworks.

Starting out, Sony took the existing GNUstep libraries, which was an implementation of OpenStep (the basis for Apple’s Cocoa in the Mac OS X and iOS). The GNUstep is similar to Cocoa as it uses the same Objective-C language and uses similar (not identical) development frameworks to the Cocoa that was used by developers to create iPad, iPhone, and Mac applications.

Sony contributed a number of enhancements to the touch-based interface on the open GNUstep codebase, and then put their plans on hold without explaining why.

As reported in Apple Insider, “Sony’s intention to use an open source platform to compete against Apple in the mobile device arena, rather than using an existing alternative such as the Java-based Android, JavaME, and BlackBerry OS; Microsoft’s Silverlight-based Windows 7 Phone; the full Windows 7 environment (that Sony has licensed for use on PCs), or some version of Adobe’s Flash Lite, Flash web plugin (championed by Google’s Chrome OS), or Flash-based AIR development platform (as the upcoming RIM PlayBook does), is an interesting development given the shared history of Apple’s Cocoa and GNUstep.”

Sony’s interest in using the GNUstep is one example of how hardware makers are looking at Google’s Andriod with skepticism. As reported in Apple Insider, “Sony already uses Android in its Xperia phones (which formerly debuted with Windows Mobile), its Google TV appliances, and its Dash ‘personal Internet viewer’ device, but like Samsung’s homegrown Bada, HP’s decision to use Palm’s webOS, RIM’s use of QNX, and Nokia’s aversion to Android, Sony’s efforts to look beyond Android indicate that leading hardware makers are not ecstatic about the prospects of simply becoming commodity device makers that divert much of their value to Google’s platform.”

Sony was unable to keep up with their Walkman when the iPods were a huge improvement in the music player sales in 2001, and has recently been embarrassed from the Apple iPhone and iPod touch when put against their own products. Sony has also been outdone with gaming platforms such as with the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable devices. If Sony will actually destroy their experiments with the GNUstep, or perhaps pick them back up again and create quality products remains to be seen.