In order to fight iPhone and Android, Nokia established the Symbian Foundation in year 2008 and promised to open source the OS that runs on millions of phone – Symbian OS.

Nokia hopes by open sourcing the Symbian OS, more companies will use the platform to create handsets and thus increasing the popularity of the the platform.  And eventually to get more developers to write applications for the platform and more people will buy Symbian handsets.

The smartphone market is a tough battle ground at the moment, with fierce competitors like Apple, Google, Microsoft and RIM.  With the move from Nokia, it is still unknown whether Nokia will gain back the market share.  Nevertheless, this is still a good news for many of the developers and hackers.  And eventually it will benefits the users of Symbian handsets.

Do expect more software and hacks from the community.

[via yahoo]