Symbian to launch app development service

Symbian handsets

The Symbian Foundation today announced a new app developing service, which it plans to launch in October.

Named Symbian Horizon, the service will help developers create and test apps from a central location before distributing them to individual existing outlets such as Nokia's Ovi store or Samsung's Application store.

Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation, said in a statement: "Our goal is to encourage robust application development, increase revenue and application diversity in mobile stores, and improve the consumer experience all for the greater benefit of the mobile ecosystem."

According to analyst Gartner, the open source, non-profit organisation's operating system accounted for half of the smartphone market in the first quarter of 2009.

The announcement comes just after mobile app dominators Apple celebrated the first birthday of its app store. Apple also confirmed its customers had downloaded more than 1.5 billion apps in its first year.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.