Symbian OS Goes Open Source

The smartphone market is very hot right now with smartphones selling very well and many different companies competing in the market. The open source Android OS is doing very well in the market against the proprietary iPhone OS and Windows Mobile. The most widely used smartphone OS in the world is Symbian and the Symbian Foundation announced today that its open source migration is complete.

The Symbian OS has been developed for more than ten years and has shipped on more than 330 million dives. The entire source code for the OS is now open source and available to anyone who wants to download it at no charge.

The code can now be used and modified by anyone for any purpose from mobile phones to other types of gear. The move was made to put Symbian in a position for growth and faster time to market. I wonder if we will see the Symbian OS start to pop up on consumer electronic devices like tablets like Android is doing. The use of the software is governed by the Eclipse Public License and other open source licenses.