Nokia downsizes Symbian Foundation to become licensing group

Nokia has taken over the Symbian Foundation and announced plans to downsize it and turn it into a licensing organization. Nokia added that it is committed to the mobile operating system.

The fate of the Symbian Foundation was up in the air after Lee Williams, the group's executive director stepped down last month. The Symbian Foundation was in charge of managing and unifying Symbian and developing it. Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson were among the primary board members.

Now the Symbian Foundation will become "a legal entity responsible for licensing software and other intellectual property, such as the Symbian trademark."

This transition "will involve a reduction in operations and staff numbers." By April 2011, the transition will be complete. Separately, Nokia said that it is behind the Symbian platform.

Jo Harlow, senior vice president of smartphones at Nokia, said in a statement:

The future of Symbian as a platform does not depend on the existence of the foundation. The changes announced by the foundation have no impact on Nokia's Symbian device roadmaps or shipping commitments.

Nokia added that its focus on Qt as its sole application development framework will help Symbian. Symbian Foundation revamp is the latest repositioning move for Nokia since former Microsoft exec Stephen Elop took over as CEO.

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