Symbian is touting a new initiative that will allow companies to get access to over 95% of the Symbian OS source code. In addition, Siemens is jumping on the Symbian bandwagon.
Symbian is now setting up a new partnership initiative to promote the creation of software and hardware technology solutions for Symbian OS. Under the new "Symbian Platinum Program" Symbian will allow members the same access to source code that it has already extended to mobile phone manufacturers, and several copmanies have already joined or committed to joining the program this week including AppForge, ARM, Fathammer, Intel, Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector, M-Systems, Texas Instruments and others.
Symbian Platinum Program members will benefit from a range of Symbian products and services allowing them to design integrated hardware and software solutions for Symbian OS, including technical support and joint marketing opportunities, as well as early access to the Symbian OS Development Kit, which incorporates source code, test code, internal documentation, kernel and device driver programming interfaces and ROM building tools.
Symbian already allows mobile phone companies access all relevant source code to allow them to develop tightly integrated and optimised solutions. The same access, to over 95% of Symbian's source code, will be extended to members of the Symbian Platinum Partner program.
In related news, Siemens IC Mobile has agreed to become a new shareholder in the Symbian joint venture, strengthening its commitment to promoting Smartphones based on Symbian OS. Under the terms agreed between the shareholders Siemens will acquire a 5% stake in Symbian for a value of 22.8 million EUR. As a shareholder, Siemens will sit on Symbian's supervisory board contributing their experience to future technical, product and strategy development of Symbian OS.
Rudi Lamprecht, Member of the Managing Board at Siemens AG, pointed out: "This latest agreement between Symbian and Siemens Mobile is very exciting news for our customers and a clear signal to the market and all application developers. Having licensed Symbian OS for our Smartphone development last year, now we also want to take the chance to strongly influence the open standard for Smartphones."
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