Bleh… Symbian going opensource
On tech news today, Symbian adopts the Eclipse Public License, set up the Symbian Foundation and went opensource.
Industry leaders to unify the Symbian mobile platform and set it free
…industry leaders are coming together to establish Symbian Foundation, to bring to life a shared vision and to create the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform – available for free. To achieve this, the foundation will unify Symbian, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) software to create an unparalleled open software platform for converged mobile devices, enabling the whole mobile ecosystem to accelerate innovation.
The Symbian Foundation platform will be available to members under a royalty-free license from this non-profit foundation. The Symbian Foundation will provide, manage and unify the platform for its members. Also, it will commit to moving the platform to open source during the next two years, with the intent to use the Eclipse Public License. This will make the platform code available to all for free, bringing additional innovation to the platform and engaging even a broader community in future developments.
The platform will be free and open to develop on from the start whether you are enthusiast, web designer, professional developer or service provider. To develop on the platform you will not need to be a member of the foundation. The Symbian Foundation’s developer program will provide a single point of access for developer support; providing a wide offering of tools and resources. (Source: Symbian Foundation)
Symbian is used by Nokia. It’s like Apple has the iPhone, Microsoft has Windows Mobile and even Google’s coming up with something too. Symbian’s having a rather unexciting future with all the other platforms (especially the iPhone) making news every now and then.
For years Nokia kept the OS closed and all of a sudden they open it. And why’s that so? Because they used it enough already, they earned their cash and they finally decide to share. This news would have been more exciting if released years ago, not anymore.
Possibly related:
Otherwise, it could be that they want to open up Symbian application development to the wider developer community in order to better compete with the iPhone and upcoming Android platforms? After all, more apps for the platform mean more utility to the users, and might therefore lead to more demand?
Jun 25