In June 2008 Nokia bought out its partners in Symbian (mobile operating system) for $410 million and have decided to forfeit the $300 million in licensing revenue by going open source. Nokia have started the non-profit Symbian Foundation with around 40 companies joining and plan to release Symbian for free in the first half of 2009.
According to CEO Nigel Clifford they are hoping that the money that companies would normally spend on licences would now be spent to innovate on Symbian and is key to keeping Symbian competitive.
Symbian has lost market share to Apple and with Google releasing Andriod further loss in the market share seems inevitable. Symbian has seen their market share drop to 57% from 66% in the same period last year.
In order to stay ahead of competitors Nokia will have to continuously innovate. The have realised that they do not have the capabilities within the company to do this as it is impossible to employ the all the smartest people in the world. By opening up to a global audience they are now hoping that anybody with an idea will now develop it on the Symbian platform and help keep Symbian at the forefront.
A growing number of companies have realised the benefits of opening up and for some it is becoming a major factor in business strategy. These communities are drawing a vast array of people from all around the world with the Internet providing the platform for collaboration that is essential for innovation.
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