Industry leaders establish foundation to provide an open and royalty-free mobile platform
On June 24, 2008 in London, UK, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DOCOMO announced their intent to unite Symbian OS™, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create one, open mobile software platform. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung, ST Microelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone they plan to establish the Symbian Foundation to extend the appeal of this unified software platform. Membership of this non-profit foundation will be open to all organizations.
To enable the foundation, Nokia announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own and then contribute the Symbian and S60 software to the foundation. Sony Ericsson and Motorola will contribute technology from UIQ and DOCOMO has indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets.
From these contributions, the foundation will provide a unified platform with common UI framework. A full platform will be available for all foundation members under a royalty-free license. Further development of the platform will be enhanced by integrating contributions from foundation members through open collaboration.
Shared vision for converged mobile devices
The Symbian Foundation unites Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create an unparalleled open software platform, available for free, for converged mobile devices enabling the whole mobile eco-system to quickly and easily innovate.
This vision is shared by many including AT&T, LG, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.
Royalty-free platform moving to open source
The Symbian Foundation platform will be available under a royalty-free license from this non-profit Foundation. The foundation will provide, manage and unify the platform for its members.
The initial contributed assets to the Symbian Foundation platform include:
- Symbian OS
- S60
- UIQ
- MOAP(S)
The foundation will combine the contributed assets to offer one platform comprising of an operating system (OS), middleware, UI framework, runtimes and an application suite, in addition to a comprehensive set of tools. The foundation’s transparent platform development process will ensure the opportunity for all members to contribute and influence the platform. The foundation’s brand drives device compatibility and consistency.
Membership of the foundation is open to anyone, with the Symbian Foundation’s launch planned for the first half 2009. The foundation will move the platform to open source under Eclipse Public License (EPL) 1.0, during the next two years; making the platform code available to all for free. It is not necessary to be a foundation member to be able to develop applications and services on top of the platform.
Efficient development across an existing large addressable market
Developers can innovate using an established and growing mobile platform across an addressable market where Symbian currently has a 60% market share for the 12 months to March 2008 (Canalys) with over 200 million shipped Symbian based devices, across 235 device models, available on over 250 operator networks.
The Symbian ecosystem today includes over 4 million registered developers and tens of thousands of applications already available.
Existing technologies
The Symbian Foundation platform embraces technologies already used by developers including native Symbian C++, POSIX C and C++, Python and Web runtime based on WebKit. The Symbian Foundation will also provide the integration for other commercial development environments including the Java™ ME Platform, Adobe® Flash Lite™ and Microsoft® Silverlight™.
The Symbian Foundation platform will be backwards compatible with Symbian OS v9 and S60 third edition. The UIQ software will be available to all foundation members from the Symbian Foundation’s first day of operation.
Tools and developer information
The Symbian Foundation’s developer program will provide a single point of access for developer support offering:
- SDKs
- Documentation
- Code samples
- Knowledge base
- Application signing program
- Incident based technical support
- Device manufacturers’ developer programs will align with the foundation’s developer program and will offer vendor-specific support.
The Symbian Foundation is expected to start operating during the first half of 2009 subject to the closing of the acquisition of Symbian Limited by Nokia and regulatory approvals. More details on the foundation are available at www.symbianfoundation.org
To enable the foundation, Nokia announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own and then contribute the Symbian and S60 software to the foundation. Sony Ericsson and Motorola will contribute technology from UIQ and DOCOMO has indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets.
From these contributions, the foundation will provide a unified platform with common UI framework. A full platform will be available for all foundation members under a royalty-free license. Further development of the platform will be enhanced by integrating contributions from foundation members through open collaboration.
Shared vision for converged mobile devices
The Symbian Foundation unites Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create an unparalleled open software platform, available for free, for converged mobile devices enabling the whole mobile eco-system to quickly and easily innovate.
This vision is shared by many including AT&T, LG, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.
Royalty-free platform moving to open source
The Symbian Foundation platform will be available under a royalty-free license from this non-profit Foundation. The foundation will provide, manage and unify the platform for its members.
The initial contributed assets to the Symbian Foundation platform include:
- Symbian OS
- S60
- UIQ
- MOAP(S)
The foundation will combine the contributed assets to offer one platform comprising of an operating system (OS), middleware, UI framework, runtimes and an application suite, in addition to a comprehensive set of tools. The foundation’s transparent platform development process will ensure the opportunity for all members to contribute and influence the platform. The foundation’s brand drives device compatibility and consistency.
Membership of the foundation is open to anyone, with the Symbian Foundation’s launch planned for the first half 2009. The foundation will move the platform to open source under Eclipse Public License (EPL) 1.0, during the next two years; making the platform code available to all for free. It is not necessary to be a foundation member to be able to develop applications and services on top of the platform.
Efficient development across an existing large addressable market
Developers can innovate using an established and growing mobile platform across an addressable market where Symbian currently has a 60% market share for the 12 months to March 2008 (Canalys) with over 200 million shipped Symbian based devices, across 235 device models, available on over 250 operator networks.
The Symbian ecosystem today includes over 4 million registered developers and tens of thousands of applications already available.
Existing technologies
The Symbian Foundation platform embraces technologies already used by developers including native Symbian C++, POSIX C and C++, Python and Web runtime based on WebKit. The Symbian Foundation will also provide the integration for other commercial development environments including the Java™ ME Platform, Adobe® Flash Lite™ and Microsoft® Silverlight™.
The Symbian Foundation platform will be backwards compatible with Symbian OS v9 and S60 third edition. The UIQ software will be available to all foundation members from the Symbian Foundation’s first day of operation.
Tools and developer information
The Symbian Foundation’s developer program will provide a single point of access for developer support offering:
- SDKs
- Documentation
- Code samples
- Knowledge base
- Application signing program
- Incident based technical support
- Device manufacturers’ developer programs will align with the foundation’s developer program and will offer vendor-specific support.
The Symbian Foundation is expected to start operating during the first half of 2009 subject to the closing of the acquisition of Symbian Limited by Nokia and regulatory approvals. More details on the foundation are available at www.symbianfoundation.org
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