The non-profit Symbian Foundation, presented by Nokia at the end of June and set to transform all the Symbian-based mobile platforms into a single open source one, has welcomed today nine new companies as members. These are:

- America Movil, the largest mobile operator in Latin America and the fifth largest in the world;

- Hutchison's 3, the UMTS/HSDPA global operator;

- TIM, Italy's largest carrier which has a strong presence in Brazil and Turkey too;

- Marvell, the US-based semiconductor producer;

- Aplix Corporation, a Japanese leader in deploying Java technology for cell phones;

- EB (Elektrobit Corporation), the Finnish wireless and automotive product developer;

- EMCC Software, software solution and consultancy services provider;

- Sasken, the Indian multi-oriented company;

- and TietoEnator, one of Europe's largest IT services providers.

The nine new companies have joined the initial members of the Symbian Foundation, which, besides Nokia, include: Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics and Symbian Limited.

Of course, together with the announcement of the new members came lots of statements.

For example, Daniel Hajj, CEO of America Movil, stated: "America Movil applauds plans for the Symbian Foundation. By offering an open mobile software platform, the Symbian Foundation will drive innovation which will ultimately benefit consumers as well as the mobile industry. This innovation will allow America Movil to deliver more exciting and compelling experiences for our customers."

Frank Meehan, Director and General Manager, 3 Handset Group, said: "3 is pleased to support the Symbian Foundation and believes this is a significant development in open mobile software platforms. 3 has established a leading position in mobile internet with the highly acclaimed x-series suite of services, which has now evolved into an even more open approach to the internet on mobile devices. We believe that this initiative will provide an excellent opportunity to expand the range and quality of services for our customers."

Symbian Foundation's official website can be found at this address. The new open source Symbian platform is expected to be ready for consumers in 2010.