Nokia takes full control of Symbian Limited; previous partners establish the non-profit Symbian Foundation.
For the tenth anniversary of the Symbian consortium, Nokia announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited it does not already own. This will put an end to the consortium currently owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Matsushita, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. While Nokia is acquiring the software development and licensing of Symbian OS, some of the former Symbian partners have agreed to establish a non-profit foundation to provide a unified platform with common UI open source framework: the Symbian Foundation. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DOCOMO announced their intent to unite Symbian OS™, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) into this open mobile software platform. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, they plan to extend the appeal of the Symbian Foundation.
A full platform available for all Foundation members from the first day of operations is expected during the first half of 2009, under a royalty-free license (US $1,500).
