Symbian goes open source

The world's most popular mobile operating system has gone open source, with immediate effect that anyone wanting to use the Symbian OS, either for a mobile phone or for some other purpose, can do so without charge.

This move by the Symbian Foundation has been taken in response to the growing threat from new open source operating systems such as Google's Android. When Nokia took control of Symbian in 2008 it made it clear that it would go open source and established the Symbian Foundation to oversee the process, working with partners including LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, AT&T and Vodafone.

In 2009 analysts Forward Concepts calculated that Symbian had a 43 per cent share of the OS market, followed by the Blackberry OS at 19 per cent, iPhone at 15 per cent, Windows Mobile at 13 per cent and Android at 3 per cent. Forward Concepts estimates that Symbian will remain dominant over the next few years although its market share will shrink under pressure from Android.

For more on this story:
3g.co.uk and ITPro

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