Samsung has reportedly agreed to a buyout proposition of its Symbian Ltd shares, which means that now Nokia owns Symbian as a whole.

Nokia’s plan is to make Symbian Operating System into Open Source to compete against the upcoming mobile phone operating system Google Android, which is open source as well. The new company in charge of the operating system will be Symbian Foundation.

We have analysed Symbian Foundation’s plans earlier this year after Nokia announced its plans.

[via Reuters]

We spoke about the Partner Network in our analysis to the Symbian Foundation and to the purchase of Symbian by Nokia. For US$1500 per year, developers will have the following benefits:

• Simplified sign-up process, click-through licenses and online payment system
• Reduced annual membership fee of USD 1,500 (from USD 5,000)
• Access to SDN++ containing the SPN Zone
• Improved self-service technical support (wikis, forums, SPN Helpdesk)
• Early access to information such as technology roadmaps and other documentation
• Enhanced marketing and business development opportunities including admission to private events, such as the annual Symbian Partner Event.

Full press release after the jump.

Source: Symbian

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Back in January I wrote an article regarding Symbian, and what would happen if it became Open Source. I compared it to Google Android, Linux, and Windows, for us to get to know the implications. Six months have gone by and there have been changes in the market. You get hacked S60 devices, modified internet tablets with Google Android, and even N95s with Google Android.

I have now realised that making more code available is not only good for developers, but also for the consumer. However, the consumer will still have to do extra work, as developing companies won’t make things any easier.

You’ll be able to use code to write your own programs to customize the Operating Systems, but internal features are still going to remain secret, and if you want to edit your phone to internal point, you will still have to “hack” it.

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