Symbian Foundation welcomes more members

Non-profit organisation the Symbian Foundation has welcomed even more members on board. Support for their upcoming open platform is continuing to increase, with 14 more members joining its roster.

The new support brings total membership to 78 companies spanning device manufacturers to mobile carriers, developers and even banks. The Symbian Foundation aims to "provide royalty-free open platform and accelerate innovation" and was launched when Finnish-manufacturer Nokia acquired Symbian Ltd.

Other mobile partners in the foundation include Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics, Samsung and Vodaphone. Another recent addition to the roster is social networking site MySpace, which recently pledged its support. Industry website Engadget suspects the website wants to become more involved in the Symbian codebase due to an increase in demand of mobile social networking.

"About the only thing left for the group to do now is deliver on its platform promises by pumping out some phones through its partners," added Chris Ziegler of Engadget. In October, it was reported that Nokia hopes to encourage the development of new applications for the Symbian platform.

Speaking at a conference in London, Nokia's Executive Vice President for Devices, Kai Oistamo said, "Collaboration is the key. Creating a bigger pile together creates a bigger share for all of us." The Symbian Foundation was first launched in 1998, with Nokia possessing the biggest share in the company.

 Last September Samsung sold their nine per cent share in the foundation back to Nokia. Nokia is expected to release the first unified Symbian Foundation software this year, with plans for a new platform due to be released by June 2010.