In light of the recent poll done by WSJ, that didn’t even mention Symbian, the Nokia-backed OS might take another hit. It appears that the Symbian Foundation could be shut down, as it doesn’t have enough funding to continue and its executive director, Lee Williams already resigned last week as things got worse.
Replacing him is CFO Tim Holbrow, who was already asked to closer operations because of the funding issue. A source close to the situation told The Register that the new boss will have to offer employees redundancy packages and wind down operations. No official confirmation or denial was available till now, but this is certainly bad news for Symbian fans and developers.
A future strategy for the venture is being analyzed and if nothing good comes up, the Foundation might dissolve. Symbian is an UK-based company, that received around $7.8 million from each of its sponsors: Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia, plus more funding from Fujitsu and other members (AT&T, Vodafone, Orange, Visa etc). The total budget of the venture is around $28 million, but companies have started backing down, with Samsung and Sony Ericsson pulling support for the platform.
Nokia remains the only big brand to support funding, but even the Finns want to cut spending, which means that 1,800 employees will be let go. How long till Symbian is no longer the number one OS on smartphones, as far as market share is concerned?
