14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday was a very big day for Nokia, turning into a coronation day for all the hard work and the planning that had been going on for quite some time. The official announcement was that Nokia had finally completed its offer for the acquirement of Symbian. This means that the Finnish company has finally satisfied all the conditions set for the purchase of Symbian, and has also reached an agreement with the shareholders, for them to give up the remaining shares.
As most of you are probably aware, Symbian is the software company that designed, and has ever since been developing the Symbian operating system. It is also the one licensing its own product. Now that this final step has been taken, all ex-Symbian employees will become Nokia staff in a very short while.
Following this takeover by Nokia, the Symbian Foundation will be born, to which companies such as AT&T, Samsung, LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung, NTT DoCoMo, Sony, and others will adhere. This development has been expected since June 24 of this year, when the Symbian Foundation was officially announced. It was just a matter of time until it was to become a reality – now, the time period has been significantly shortened by the agreement that the two companies have reached.
This Foundation whipped up a major interest the moment it was first announced and, as we've seen, many companies have already joined it, with many more expected to be announcing their adhesion in the near future. The Foundation is set to start operating sometime between the second and third quarter of 2009. The ultimate goal is to provide, manage and unify the Symbian Foundation platform, in order to be able to release it as an open-source one at some point.