Symbian Foundation Gains Stronger Global Support

(Business News & Technology News, 25 Nov 2008)

The initial board members of the Symbian Foundation have welcomed the latest supporters of the Symbian Foundation initiative. The interim Steering Group setting up the foundation has been meeting in Tokyo, Japan this week.

"NTT DOCOMO is highly honored to host a meeting of the initial board members in Japan. Today's news means that 59 companies from around the world are now supporting the foundation's vision of creating the most open platform for mobile devices," said Toshio Miki, Associate Senior Vice President, Managing Director of Communication Device Development Department at NTT DOCOMO on behalf of the initial board members. "We are on track to begin foundation operations during the first half of 2009, delivering the world's most proven and successful open mobile platform, available royalty free for members from the foundation's first day of operations."

"Japan, together with many other countries in this region, will be important markets for the foundation platform," said Lee Williams, nominated Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation. "Today's Symbian OS is already used in more than 150 countries in over 50 languages and the foundation's software will build on that heritage, to be a truly global yet locally relevant open platform. Our plans to make the platform available in open source by June 2010 will further enhance its appeal to developers, solutions providers and network operators in this region and around the world. We are delighted to have such strong support for the foundation from companies here in Japan, including NTT DOCOMO and Sony Ericsson as initial board members, together with Acrodea, Aplix, Brycen, Fujitsu, Fujisoft, HI Corp. and Sharp previously announced, joined today by K3, Renesas and Softbank Mobile."

Today's announcement includes support for the Symbian Foundation plans from 7 more companies; Borqs, Comarch, HiQ, Kanrikougaku Kenkyusho Ltd (K3), L&T Infotech, Renesas Technology Corp. and Softbank Mobile Corp., who add their endorsements to the 52 other companies already announced.

"Borqs believes that there is a strong market demand for a truly open software platform for smartphones, so we are excited by the plans to establish the Symbian Foundation," says Pat Chan, CEO of Borqs. "Borqs looks forward to joining the Symbian Foundation to play a role in creating a stronger value proposition for the industry by developing applications and middleware for the Symbian Foundation platform."

"Comarch shares the vision of creating an open and compelling mobile software platform and we are proud to support plans for the Symbian Foundation," says Pawel Bieryt, EVP, Telecommunications Business Group at Comarch. "For Comarch, as for the foundation, innovation extends beyond R&D into solutions and services that enable a new era of digital life for consumers. Comarch will continue to ensure professional development and world class systems and applications for our customers, built on the Symbian Foundation platform. We believe that the foundation will create a 21st century ecosystem of stakeholders and users, providing increasing business opportunities for all."

"K3 is excited by the announcement of plans for the Symbian Foundation and to make the foundation¡¯s software platform available in open source," says Naoki Kanetani, Mobile Division Manager of K3. "We have been involved with the Symbian OS since the beginning, specializing in language internationalization and localization, together with UI and middleware development. K3 is committed to playing a strong role in the foundation ecosystem, working closely with operators, handset makers and foundation members to provide mobile solutions, training services and technology publications for the Japanese market, together with new applications implemented on our Japanese Language Input System (Matsutake for S60 and +J for S60)."

"HiQ welcomes the initiative to form the Symbian Foundation and we are excited by the opportunity to participate in bringing the platform to the next level in the dynamic and evolving mobile industry," says Lars Stugemo, President and CEO of HiQ. "Based on today's leading open mobile OS, we believe the foundation platform will benefit further from the open source community input. This combined with the strong industry support from Symbian Foundation members will allow the industry to bring exciting solutions to mobile end-users. We intend to join the foundation, continuing to use our expertise to help clients with their mobile evolution and look forward to contributing to the new unified era of the Symbian Foundation platform."

"L&T Infotech supports plans for the Symbian Foundation as a positive step which will drive product innovation and provide a superior user experience," says Koti Narasimham, Executive Vice President, Larsen & Toubro Infotech. "We have been actively involved with the Symbian OS since the earliest smartphones, and we have been providing a range of embedded engineering, application design and development, customization and testing services to leading ODMs, chipset manufacturers and operators. With rich experience in S60 and UIQ, we look forward to utilizing our unique engineering and project management expertise to develop contemporary and next generation applications for our clients built on the Symbian Foundation platform."

"Renesas is very enthusiastic about the plans to create the Symbian Foundation. The concept behind it is convincing and we are sure that many developers will be attracted to support this platform," says Hideaki Chaki, General Manager in the System Solution Business Group at Renesas. "This will mean that more features will be available in a shorter timeframe. From this perspective, users, manufacturers and suppliers will benefit a lot from the planned Symbian Foundation. We are looking forward working closely with the Symbian Foundation and its members in the future."

"SoftBank Mobile welcomes plans for the Symbian Foundation," says Masanobu Yoshida, Senior Vice President, SoftBank Mobile. "We believe its activities will establish a leading open platform for mobile. Participating in the work of the Symbian Foundation and adopting the platform will enable us to concentrate resources to deliver more appealing devices more quickly to a worldwide market. We are convinced that this mobile platform will accelerate innovation in the mobile industry and increase customer satisfaction."

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