Symbian Slaps At Google Android With Open Source Play
The move comes as the Nokia-owned Symbian Foundation looks to take on Google Android as the premier open source mobile OS. Both Symbian and Google Android are now completely free and open.
According to the Foundation, there are roughly 330 million handsets running Symbian. Version 3 of the Symbian OS has recently been completed. The Symbian Foundation vowed to make its code open source in 2008 and has now made good on the promise.
Essentially, being an open source mobile operating system means any individual or organization can now use and modify the platform and its source code for any use.
Nokia bought out the remaining shares of Symbian in 2008 and launched the Symbian Foundation, a non-profit designed to oversee the OS's development and help it move to an open source environment. While Nokia has a dominant presence in the Foundation, it also comprises members from other massive mobility companies like AT7T, Motorola, Samsung, NTT Docomo, Sony Ericsson and several others.
Until today's announcement, Symbian's source code was open only to members of the Symbian Foundation.
Opening up its source code puts Symbian in direct competition with Google Android, which has made a name for itself among developers for its openness.
Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation, told Mashable.com, however, that the new open Symbian has an advantage over Android. Symbian is fully open, he says, while "about a third of the Android code base is open and nothing more. And what is open is a collection of middleware. Everything else is closed or proprietary."