Symbian source code released by Nokia (Updated)

Just to confirm with people that they’re finally done with the aging operating system, Nokia has released the source code to the latest version of Symbian to the public. Originally a job for the Symbian Foundation, Nokia took over when the foundation closed its doors late last year. Now that the code for the Symbian platform is out in the wild, as well as the SDK and build tools; other developers can take Symbian and pick up where Nokia left off.  Hopefully they’ll be creating something new in the process – maybe a heavily modified, homebrew version of Symbian that would make even Android and iOS users want to use? (Highly unlikely, but we can always dream) What we do know is that Nokia is finally saying goodbye to Symbian as it prepares itself for the arrival of Windows Phone on their hardware. Bad news for the Symbian devices coming out later this year though – when people find out there’s no more love for the operating system from the parent company, will they even be bothered to give those new Symbian phones a shot? Read more about it on the Official Nokia Symbian blog.

Update (4/3): My apologies, the above article is factually wrong – Nokia has not released the Symbian source code to the public but rather, they will be releasing it to the companies they’ve been working with. From Mark Durrant, director of communications at Nokia:

George, this is not a public release of Symbian source code. As Nokia said when the Symbian Foundation announced its plans to ramp down operations, we are making the code available through an alternative (the foundation published under the EPL license), open and direct model. The aim of this new site is to make the code available direct to those companies that we are already working with to deliver the 150 million more Symbian smartphones that we have said we will ship. It is not a site for public download of open source code.

George Wong
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Microsoft, Nokia, release, released, sdk, source code, symbian, Windows Phone 7