Nokia acquires Symbian; sets up Symbian Foundation with other players

Damian Koh | Jun 24, 2008

We already know that Nokia has been using the S60 platform for many of its devices, but things took an interesting turn today when the Finnish phone-maker announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Ltd that it don't already own.

It will then contribute the software to the non-profit Symbian Foundation established with other major players in the market, such as AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectonics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, to accelerate the development of the platform.

Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo have also announced their intent to contribute their UIQ and MOAP(S) assets to the foundation.

So what do all these mean to you? Nothing, unless you are a software developer already working with any of the brands mentioned above.

What's interesting to note is that the foundation has committed to move the platform toward open source in the next two years and the codes will be available to its members under a royalty-free license. The foundation is expected to start operating during the first half of 2009.

Are all these a direct response to Google's Open Handset Alliance? What do you think? Share your thoughts in Talkback.

Via Engadget

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