14 DAY TRIAL // Symbian Foundation, established by Nokia and other mobile giants with the goal of converting all Symbian-based mobile platforms into a single, open-source leading OS, has, as of today, the support of nine other companies. These are: Sharp, Opera Software, UIQ Technology, Acrodea, KTF, Brycen, Ixonos, HI Corporation and TapRoot Systems.
Talking about about Symbian Foundation's new allies, Sony Ericsson's Chief Technology Officer Mats Lindoff said (on behalf of the initial board members), "The mobile phone industry is a very dynamic industry that continues to evolve and develop. 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."
With the upcoming open-source mobile platform that unites Symbian S60, Symbian S40, Symbian UIQ and MOAP(S) – used in Japan –, the Symbian Foundation is bound to become one of the leading organizations in the mobile industry. Moreover, Google's Android, also touted as an open-source platform, might not be as successful as the big G wants it to.
"Symbian Limited was one of the first companies to support Opera's vision of how the Web one day would be available on any device,” declared Jon von Tetzchner, CEO at Opera Software. “Today, that vision is becoming reality. As the market leader in standards-driven, cross-platform Web browsing innovation, we expect to offer our expertise in developing compelling and captivating Web browsing experiences. We look forward to the opportunity to join the foundation and help drive the ongoing evolution of the leading mobile operating system."
Group Deputy General Manager at Sharp's Communication Systems Group, Yuji Arai, also stated, “We believe its activities will establish a leading open platform for mobile. Participating in the work of the Symbian Foundation and adopting the platform will enable us to concentrate resources to deliver more appealing devices more quickly to a worldwide market. We are convinced that this mobile platform will accelerate innovation in the mobile industry and increase customer satisfaction.”
The initial board members of the Foundation are Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, Vodafone, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics. Shortly after the Foundation's establishment, more members joined in, including America Movil, TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), Hutchison's 3, Marvell, Elektrobit Corporation, Aplix Corporation, EMCC Software, TietoEnator and Sasken.
The first product of Symbian Limited, hence the first version of its open source mobile platform, is expected to be launched at the beginning of 2009.