Symbian Foundation draws strong industry support

09 September 2008, 10:26am

September 09, 2008 – Plans for the Symbian Foundation and the evolution of Symbian OS™ as the leading, open platform for mobile innovation continue to receive strong support from companies throughout the mobile ecosystem. Today, Acrodea, Brycen, HI Corporation, Ixonos, KTF, Opera Software, Sharp, TapRoot Systems and UIQ Technology are adding their endorsement for the planned foundation.

Since June 2008, 40 companies have confirmed commitment to the initiative, including the ten initial board members: AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.

"The mobile phone industry is a very dynamic industry that continues to evolve and develop” said Mats Lindoff, Sony Ericsson Chief Technology Officer, on behalf of the initial board members. “We are happy to see that so many developers and partners in the industry have expressed their support for the plans for the Symbian Foundation, as this will help drive the next level of innovation needed to deliver new user experiences on mobile phones."

"As a long time member of the Symbian Platinum Partner Program, Acrodea is excited by plans for the Symbian Foundation." said Junya Tsutsumi, President & CEO of Acrodea. "We are convinced that this initiative will be the start of a new era for mobile development.　The Symbian Foundation will allow Acrodea to bring the highest level of service to our customers and end users in a timely manner on a global basis and we will enthusiastically participate in this endeavour. Acrodea intends to build closer relationships with other foundation members, helping them meet increasing needs for customization of user experience."

Since plans for the Symbian Foundation were announced, hundreds of organizations have registered their interest in joining the foundation via the website at www.symbianfoundation.org.

As previously announced, the plans for the establishment of the Symbian Foundation and royalty-free licensing of foundation software are:

The acquisition of Symbian Limited by Nokia, expected to close in Q4, 2008, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Software assets are contributed to the foundation, including Symbian OS and S60 by Nokia, UIQ technology by Motorola and Sony Ericsson and MOAP(S) by NTT DOCOMO and Fujitsu.

This contributed software will be available under a royalty-free license to foundation members from the first day of Symbian Foundation operations, expected 1H 2009.

The Foundation will work to unify the platform, with the first unified foundation release expected in 2009.

The foundation will work to make the platform available in open source by June 2010 (two years from the Symbian Foundation announcement)

Full article and comments

Symbian Foundation

Geo: International