Symbian Foundation Welcomes New Board Member, Fujitsu

The Symbian Foundation has just added a new member to its board of directors, namely Fujitsu Limited. The company has joined the likes of wireless operators AT&T, Vodafone, NTT DOCOMO, chip makers ST Microelectronics NV and Texas Instruments, or mobile phone makers Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia, which are already Appointing OEM Members on the Symbian Foundation board.

According to the duo, Fujitsu has already accepted all rights and obligations an Appointing OEM Board Member has, such as supporting the foundation with an active participation on the four foundation Councils supervising the development of the Symbian operating system, as well as with a financial commitment. The Symbian Foundation notes that Fujitsu joins the team with great knowledge and expertise in open source.

“We believe Fujitsu will continue to bring a wealth of experience in making consumer focused multimedia handsets with new user experience to the Symbian Foundation drawing on the successes of the innovative firsts Fujitsu has offered on Symbian,” Lee Williams, executive director, Symbian Foundation, commented on the announcement.

It's a common fact that Japan represents one of the most advanced mobile markets around the world. The Symbian platform is present in FOMA MOAP(S) phones that can be found on the DOCOMO network. Fujitsu is one of the companies that contributed to the development of MOAP(S). There are more than 40 million handsets with Symbian shipped in Japan, and Fujitsu joins the Symbian Foundation so as to address future market requirements and to help enhance the Symbian user experience.

“Fujitsu is pleased to join and contribute to the Symbian Foundation as a Board member. With 8 years' experience in developing Symbian OS based mobile phones and commercializing cutting-edge mobile phones for NTT DOCOMO, we will further drive activities to develop the foundation and the Symbian platform,” said Nobuo Ohtani, president, Mobile Phones Unit, Fujitsu Limited.

The Symbian Foundation now includes more than 150 members, such as mobile operators, semi-conductor companies, handset manufacturers, and software companies.