Symbian Foundation
 | |
| Founded | 24 June 2008 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | April 2011 |
| Focus | Open mobile software platform |
| Location | |
| Origins | Symbian Ltd |
| Products | The Symbian platform |
| Website | symbian.org |
The Symbian Foundation was a non-profit organisation that stewarded the Symbian platform; an operating system for mobile phones, based on Symbian OS, which previously had been owned and licensed by Symbian Ltd.. Symbian Foundation never directly developed the platform, but evangelised, co-ordinated and ensured compatibility. It also provided key services to its members and the community such as collecting, building and distributing Symbian source code.
Operational phase (2009-2010)
The Foundation was founded by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, NTT DoCoMo, Motorola, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics and AT&T.[1] Due to a change in their device strategy, LG and Motorola left the Foundation board soon after its creation. They were later replaced by Fujitsu[2] and Qualcomm Innovation Center.[3]
During its operational phase (from 2009 to 2010), it also provided:
- platform development kits and tools
- documentation and example code
- discussion forums and mailing lists
- application signing (Symbian Signed)[4]
- application distribution (Symbian Horizon)[5]
- idea gathering and feedback (Symbian Ideas)[6]
- an annual conference (Symbian Exchange and Exposition, abbreviated "SEE")
Members
The Symbian Foundation invited companies to join as members, and attracted over 200, from a large number of categories:[7]
- Device manufacturers (e.g. Nokia, Fujitsu)
- Financial services companies (e.g. Visa)
- Semiconductor vendors (e.g. ARM, Broadcom)
- Mobile network operators (e.g. China Mobile, Vodafone, AT&T)
- Software companies
- Professional services firms
Closure of Symbian Foundation
Following "a change in focus for some of [the] funding board members", the Symbian Foundation announced in November 2010 that it would transition to "a legal entity responsible for licensing software and other intellectual property", with no operational responsibilities or staff.[8] The transition is a result of changes in global economic and market conditions (widely attributed to the stiff competition with other OS such as iOS and Android). Along with this announcement, Nokia announced it would take over governance of the Symbian platform. Nokia has been the major contributor to the code, and has been maintaining their own code repository for the platform development ever since the purchase of Symbian Ltd., regularly releasing their development to the public repository.[9]
After the transition completed in April 2011, the Symbian Foundation will remain as the trademark holder and licensing entity, and will only have non-executive directors involved. All Symbian Foundation public web sites, wiki and code repositories were shut down on 17 December 2010,[10] and on that date Nokia launched a new Symbian site.[11]
However, with the announcement of Nokia's partnership with Microsoft in February 2011 and the transition to Windows Phone OS as the primary platform,[12] the development of Symbian stopped and was outsourced to Accenture.[13] Nokia closed this service at end of 2012.[14]
References
- ↑ "Mobile leaders to unify the Symbian software platform and set the future of mobile free" (Press release). Nokia. 24 June 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ↑ Symbian Foundation Welcomes Fujitsu as New Board Member : Fujitsu Global. Fujitsu.com. Retrieved on 2013-12-08.
- ↑ Qualcomm Innovation Center Joins the Symbian Foundation - SAN DIEGO and LONDON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/. Prnewswire.com. Retrieved on 2013-12-08.
- ↑ "Symbian Signed". Retrieved 4 August 2009.
- ↑ "Symbian Horizon".
- ↑ "Symbian Ideas".
- ↑ Archived 16 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Symbian Foundation. Licensing.symbian.org. Retrieved on 2013-12-08.
- ↑ Guest Post: Symbian OS – One Of The Most Successful Failures In Tech History | TechCrunch. Eu.techcrunch.com (2010-11-08). Retrieved on 2013-12-08.
- ↑ Archived 23 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Archived 21 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Nokia's new strategy and structure, Symbian to be a "franchise platform", MeeGo still in long term plans. All About MeeGo (2011-02-11). Retrieved on 2013-12-08.
- ↑ Nokia passes off Symbian and 2,300 employees to Accenture. Engadget.com. Retrieved on 2013-12-08.
- ↑ http://symbian.nokia.com/
