Nokia hopes giving away the Symbian technology used in its high-end mobile phones will encourage Internet developers to build innovative applications on the platform, helping it win back market share.
A freely available Symbian operating system to be controlled by an independent foundation would reinvigorate the platform because developers of new Internet applications in areas such as social networking and navigation will be more likely to use it as a platform, Nokia said on Wednesday.
"I strongly believe an open ecosystem wins over an ecosystem run by a captain, or I should say a dictatorship," Nokia's Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Oistamo told a conference of Symbian partners and developers in London.
"Collaboration is the key. Creating a bigger pie together creates a bigger share for all of us."
Making the platform freely available to developers was the objective when Nokia, the world's number one mobile phone maker, agreed in June to buy out its partners in Symbian for $410 million, he said.
Nokia has sold more than 180 million Symbian smartphones — phones that have the capabilities of computers — and has developed the platform's most successful user interface, S60.
But the technology faces increasing competition from Google, Apple and RIM, which have raised the bar for the smartphone industry, eating into its market.
Nokia responded with its buy-out plan, which is awaiting clearance from Chinese and European regulators. The company said on Wednesday it still expected approval by the end of the year.
Lee Williams, head of the S60 organization at Nokia's devices business, was nominated to be executive director of the not-for-profit Symbian Foundation on Wednesday.
"The new entrants have brought a tremendous level of awareness," Williams told Reuters in an interview. "Among mainstream consumers we are seeing a tremendous level of interest toward smartphones."
Since June, 52 companies have said they plan to join the not-for-profit foundation, including all major mobile phone makers, giving it an edge over Google's Android, which has 34 members, in the battle for the mobile phone software market.
Symbian said sweeping away licensing fees would cost it royalties which totaled $300 million last year.
"We want developers from all domains to come and play," Symbian Ltd Chief Executive Nigel Clifford said in a keynote speech on Tuesday. "Up to now developers have been a little bit put off by licensing."
Nokia expects to release the first unified Symbian Foundation software next year and introduce a completely new platform by June 2010.
