Symbian’s road to open source complete, but journey’s just begun

The Symbian Foundation completed its move to fully open yesterday, marking what it says is the largest-scale conversion of a closed operating system to open source in history. Symbian doesn’t get a lot of love when it comes to mobile operating systems, but it is still the OS in use on more than 330 million mobile phones worldwide. Going fully open, and four months ahead of schedule to boot, could be the reinvigoration the platform needs to maintain its waning top-dog status. But it’s still far from a slam-dunk scenario.

Symbian has led the world in embedded OSs, helping former owner Nokia be a world leader, too, but it has had the spotlight routinely stolen from it by the smaller, albeit more snazzy, forward-thinking forces that are Apple, Google Android and Research In Motion. It will be hard for Symbian to match the cool factor of its competitors, but the move to open does bring with it some significant advantages.
As an open, royalty-free platform, developers won’t have to be foundation members to see Symbian’s code, and device-makers will be able to add custom features to the OS and speed their time to market. Handset manufacturers could also save nearly $15 per handset in licensing fees. The foundation has also promised routine outdates, putting out a road map and call for comments on future developments to the system spanning two years. Symbian^3 is planned to be completed by the end of the quarter, with Symbian^4 in the second half of this year.
The Symbian Foundation was more than ready to cut ties with Nokia, but becoming open source should benefit Nokia more than anyone else. Not only is its relationship with Symbian good for PR, but Nokia has been making moves to increase the attractiveness of its services, as well. It recently made its Ovi Maps service free, which has proven successful for both the maps and its Ovi Store in general. This services strategy coupled with Symbian’s open-source OS will make Nokia a more attractive proposition.

It will also appeal to developers looking for an alternative to Android, especially because Google became both a partner and a competitor when it launched the Nexus One. Symbian going open source should make it easier for developers to bring new applications and features that would bring it on par with its competitors. It could also make them want to.

Its scale alone should be enough to attract developers that in turn will attract consumers, but Symbian has its declining market share working against it the whole way. Its grasp on the market has fallen to less than 50%, down from 60% two years ago. Plus, the market is extremely competitive today, with phones based on Android making significant progress. Completion of its source code is certainly good — and big — news for the foundation, and benefits should result. But it won’t be an easy road by any means.

E-mail me at sarah.reedy@penton.com.