Consortium to unify Symbian platform as iPhone and Android threats loom

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:15

Your IT - Mobility

More than 200 million Symbian phones have already been shipped.

AT&T, LG, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, TI and Vodafone will also be involved in the Foundation, which is expected to commence operations during the first half of 2009.

"The Symbian Foundation will reduce fragmentation in the industry and holds the promise of incorporating leading technology and the most mature software into a unified platform for the entire industry," said Kris Rinne, senior vice president of architecture and planning at AT&T.

"We have been challenging the industry to reduce complexity and focus on fewer operating systems," said Jens Schulte-Bockum, Vodafone's global director of terminals. "This step will help to drive even faster innovation, as well as enable operators to accelerate time-to-market for compelling and varied new services."

But it seems the Foundation has somewhat different ideas about the meaning of 'open' to that of the Android project, which is expected to deliver its first phones by the end of 2008.

The full platform will be available to the members of the Symbian Foundation on a royalty-free basis, but only "selected components" will initially be available as open source.

This should change by 2010, by which time the Foundation' aims to "establish the most complete mobile software offering available in open source."

How are industry members lining up behind Symbian and Android, and what's in it for users? Please turn to the final page.