I think that's a great development and we can expect to see more developments such as open source screen readers for S60 phones, accesible open source navigational softwares like Loadstone etc.
Vetri. On 05/02/2010, Shiv <[email protected]> wrote: > BBC News - Symbian phone operating system goes open source > > BBC NEWS > > Symbian switches to open source > > By Jonathan Fildes > Technology reporter, BBC News > > The group behind the world's most popular smartphone operating system - > Symbian - is giving away "billions of dollars" worth of code for free. > > The Symbian Foundation's announced that it would make its code open source > in 2008 and has now completed the move. > > It means that any organisation or individual can now use and modify the > platform's underlying source code "for any purpose". > > Symbian has shipped in more than 330m mobile phones, the foundation says. > > It believes the move will attract new developers to work on the system and > help speed up the pace of improvements. > > "This is the largest open source migration effort ever," Lee Williams of the > Symbian Foundation told BBC News. > > "It will increase rate of evolution and increase the rate of innovation of > the platform." > > Ian Fogg, principal analyst at Forrester research, said the move was about > Symbian "transitioning from one business model to another" as well as trying > to gain "momentum and mindshare" for software that had been overshadowed by > the release of Apple's iPhone and Google Android operating system. > > Evolutionary barrier > > Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia bought the software in 2008 and helped > establish the non-profit Symbian Foundation to oversee its development and > transition > to open source. > > The foundation includes Nokia, AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Sony > Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone. > > " It's useful for them to say Symbian is now open - Google has done very > well out of that " > Ian Fogg > > The group has now released what it calls the Symbian platform as open source > code. This platform unites different elements of the Symbian operating > system > as well as components - in particular, user interfaces - developed by > individual members. > > Until now, Symbian's source code was only open to members of the > organisation. > > It can be downloaded from the foundation's website from 1400 GMT. > > Mr Williams said that one of the motivations for the move was to speed up > the rate at which the 10-year-old platform evolved. > > "When we chatted to companies who develop third party applications, we found > people would spend up to nine months just trying to navigate the > intellectual > property," he said. > > "That was really hindering the rate of progress." > > Opening up the platform would also improve security, he added. > > 'Mind share' > > Symbian development is currently dominated by Nokia, but the foundation > hoped to reduce the firm's input to "no more than 50%" by the middle of > 2011, said > Mr Williams. > > "We will see a dramatic shift in terms of who is contributing to the > platform." > > However, said Mr Williams, the foundation would monitor phones using the > platform to ensure that they met with minimum standards. > > Despite being the world's most popular smart phone operating system, Symbian > has been losing the publicity battle, with Google's Android operating system > and Apple's iPhone dominating recent headlines. > > "Symbian desperately needs to regain mindshare at the moment," said Mr Fogg. > > "It's useful for them to say Symbian is now open - Google has done very well > out of that." > > He also said that the software "may not be as open and free as an outsider > might think". > > "Almost all of the open source operating systems on mobile phones - Nokia's > Maemo, Google's Android - typically have proprietary software in them." > > For example, Android incorporates Google's e-mail system Gmail. > > But Mr Williams denied the move to open source was a marketing move. > > "The ideas we are executing ideas came 12-18 months before Android and > before the launch of the original iPhone," Mr Williams told BBC News. > > Story from BBC NEWS: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/8496263.stm > > Published: 2010/02/04 00:02:59 GMT > > © BBC MMX > > > To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with > the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
