In a major announcement made prior to the start of the Symbian Exposition, Nokia and Symbian have announced a “strategic change” in the way the Symbian foundation operates. Contrary to rumors that Symbian might be folding its wings, Nokia has decided to take over the foundation and continue to develop the platform further. The Symbian Foundation will continue to exist in its capacity as a legal entity responsible for licensing software and other intellectual property, such as the Symbian trademark. This would also result in the downsizing of the Symbian Foundation’s employee strength.
The transition will take place by March 2011, and this seems to be a major attempt on the part of Nokia to counter the threat from Android and iOS by taking matters into their own hands. Nokia has reiterated that it remains”strongly committed” to the platform.
As mentioned earlier, this announcement comes soon after the appointment of Stephen Elop as Nokia CEO and right before the SEE kicks of in Amsterdam. It would be interesting to see how this change would affect the future of Symbian and more importantly Symbian^4, the foundations next major release scheduled for next year.
[Via Nokia]
typos here…just under the image..”earleir”..should be “earlier”…and “righr”..should be “right”…i am a lil surprised dat the editor did not notice dat…