Symbian Foundation opens Japan office

The Symbian Foundation today announced it is establishing a new office in Japan. The aim is to improve its support for it Japanese members (who include the operators NTT DOCOMO and Softbank Mobile and the manufacturers Sharp and Fujitsu) and bolster engagement with the developer community. The Symbian Foundation also have offices in London, San Fransisco and Helsinki.

Symbian has a distinguished history in Japan. As of September 2008 40 million Symbian phones have shipped in Japan and that number continues to grow (across more than 100 different models). As a result, as a country, Japan has the highest market penetration of Symbian phones in the world.

The Symbian phones are predominantly the MOAP-S phones of the NTT DOCOMO network. While the phones are not open in the traditional smartphone sense, they have been used to drive a rich service experience to Japanese consumers and frequently set new technical milestones.

From the press release:

"The Symbian Foundation’s main focus in Japan will be to:

• Support and collaborate with companies currently making devices and software based on the Symbian platform
• Create opportunities for developer discussion and energise the developer community, for example through the activities of Symbian Working Groups
• Support developers through seminars on the latest technical developments
• Manage and publish essential information regarding the platform, and encourage community discussion and collaboration, via websites, forums, wikis, blogs, and other channels
• Promote availability and encourage adoption of the Symbian platform to a wider Japanese audience

Through these activities the Symbian Foundation aims to foster further growth and innovation of the mobile market in Japan."

The Symbian Foundation Japan blog (Japanese language) will no doubt have more detail in the week and months ahead. See also the Symbian Foundation's Japanese site.

Published by Rafe Blandford at 10:57 UTC, July 14th

Categories: Developer, Industry
Platforms: General, MOAP

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