Symbian Foundation facing extinction as funding dwindles

The Symbian Foundation, the non-profit initiative charged with overseeing the Symbian smartphone platform, is reportedly winding down operations in the face of recent member defections and declining funds. Citing sources close to the organization, The Register reports that Tim Holbrow--named executive director last week following the sudden resignation of longtime head Lee Williams--has been asked to shutter operations over the next six months, with Foundation employees receiving redundancy package offers. The Symbian Foundation would not confirm or deny the report, but stated its board is reviewing strategy. "The future business strategy for the Symbian Foundation is still under review by the board," the group said. "As no decisions have been made, we will not be offering further comment."

Symbian retains its crown as the leading smartphone OS worldwide, controlling 41.2 percent of the global market according to data published in mid-August by research firm Gartner. It was just a year ago that Symbian-based devices represented 51 percent of the market, however--faced with mounting competition from Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Google's Android, the platform has struggled to attract both consumer and developer interest. In recent weeks, both Sony Ericsson and Samsung Electronics have stated they will longer manufacture Symbian-based devices. Along with Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung represented Symbian's largest manufacturer partners--it is believed that all three device makers each contributed around $7.8 million to Symbian's coffers, leaving Nokia the only one still extending financial support. The Register adds the foundation's budget totals about $28 million annually thanks to contributions from members including AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Adobe Systems, Orange and Visa.

Last week, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) said it will embrace the Qt cross-platform development environment as its sole application creation framework--moving forward, developers who build apps in Qt will be able to deploy their software across devices running both the Symbian and MeeGo operating systems. Nokia adds it will create its own applications and UI in Qt as well, also committing to the HTML5 standard for web content and apps across both Symbian and MeeGo. "We will no longer be talking about Symbian^3 or Symbian^4 at all--it will be one constantly evolving and constantly improving platform," writes Nokia Conversations editor-in-chief Phil Schwarzmann on the handset maker's official blog.

For more on the Symbian Foundation's fate:
- read this Register article

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