Less fragmentation going forward, but it'll take two years for the 'Open Symbian' to mature.
Content providers have reacted positively to news that Nokia is to make the Symbian OS available to handset providers on a royalty-free basis.With more Symbian devices expected to ship as a result of the move, it could be good news for the development of 'native' mobile content in particular.
Games publisher Electronic Arts was present at the unveiling of the Symbian Foundation in London this morning and told ME that less fragmention would be one of the benefits.
Right now there are three different UI flavours of the OS in the form of Series 60, UIQ and MOAP(S) from Nokia, Sony Ericsson/Motorola and DoCoMo, respectively.
As its stands content providers have to tweak their apps in order to target all three, but all that is set to change.
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However, this morning Symbian execs confrmed it would take at least two years for the unified OS to emerge and mature to the point where its benefits would be truly felt.
Symbian says more than 4 million developers globally create apps for its OS.
