I guess too much competition from the open source Google Android OS platform, the Symbian foundation has decided to make the Symbian Platform completely open as of today.

Here's what the blog says:

As of now, the Symbian platform is completely open source. And it is Symbian^3, the latest version of the platform, which will be soon be feature complete.

Open sourcing a market-leading product in a dynamic, growing business sector is unprecedented. Over 330 million Symbian devices have been shipped worldwide, and it is likely that a further 100 million will ship in 2010 with more than 200 million expected to ship annually from 2011 onwards.

Now the platform is free for anyone to use and to contribute to. It is not only a sophisticated software platform, It is also the focal point of a community. And a lot of the foundation's effort going forward will be to ensure the community grows and is supported in bringing great innovations to the platform and future devices.

It is a big day for all those people who have worked on preparing the Symbian source code over the past ten months.

From Symbian's side, the unsung heroes are Victor Palau, Tahir Mahmood, Pat Downey and Matt Davies, supported and encouraged by William Roberts; Ian Hutton who kept the communications flowing up, down and around the organization; Chris Davidson, who has been a key coordinator in the process and who has helped translate what is going on to those of us without a technical background; and Jo Stichbury, who has ensured that all the information that needs to be available is there for contributors and developers.

Outside of the foundation but very much involved: Sampo Savolainen, Mika Somero, Martin Platts, and Pia Vuorela. An additional thanks go to all the package owners who carry a key responsibility for innovation from here on.

Over the next five days we're going to bring you a raft of information on Symbian and the platform migration. So stay tuned for the full story - background, current status, technical details, the vision for 2010 and how to join the community.

souce: blog.symbian.org