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Dec. 6, 2008

Including AOL, six new companies have joined the Symbian Foundation, while existing member AT&T reiterated its support for the soon-to-be open source mobile operating system.

AOL has a track record of supporting the open-source community. In July, AOL opened its mobile development platform using the Apache license.

AOL’s cultural open-source roots date back to 2003, when it helped fund the Mozilla Foundation after acquiring Netscape Communications.

AOL Mobile v.p. Jai Jaisimha said "AOL welcomes plans for the formation of the Symbian Foundation and the open source release of its platform."

He added "as a leader in the online media and advertising space, AOL is a strong proponent of the role of open APIs and open source technologies as a key enabler for the emerging open mobile ecosystem.”

At the same time, the Symbian Foundation’s other new members, announced yesterday at the Symbian Partner Event in San Francisco, are Cell Telecom, a systems management company, Intrinsyc, which makes development tools for GPS and other mobile software.

The other companies are, ISB, a terminal specialist, Trusted Logic, in the mobile security field, and Xenient, which provides consulting and technical training.

The foundation was formed in August and is run by former Nokia official Lee Williams.

Also at the event yesterday, AT&T Director of Next-Generation Services Roger Smith said the wireless carrier is looking to consolidate its smartphone operating systems by using Symbian, not counting proprietary devices such as the Apple iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry models.

“We think trying to diminish some of that fragmentation will be very helpful,” A&T spokesman Mark Siegel explained.

The effort is just beginning, so there is no timeframe for when handset consolidation will occur, he said. AT&T also still has not decided whether to use Google’s Android platform, he added.

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Source: AOL.