Symbian's Horizon Tool Aims To Encourage DevelopersSymbian's Horizon Tool Aims To Encourage Developers

The Symbian Foundation is looking to lure developers away from rivals Apple, Google, and Research In Motion, and is showing off a new program aimed at helping content creators make, market, and distribute mobile applications.

Symbian Horizon is an application-publishing program that the foundation said will lower the barrier of entry for content creators. The program will assist with application certification, language translations, and marketing programs. Additionally, Symbian Horizon will be partnering with multiple app stores to enable developers to reach as broad of an audience as possible. These stores will include Nokia's Ovi Store for S60 devices, Samsung's application store, AT&T's MEdia Mall, and more.

"Our goal is to encourage robust application development, increase revenue and application diversity in mobile stores, and improve the consumer experience," said Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation, in a statement. "And we can help North American developers reach markets in Asia and Europe where the Symbian platform is widely known and loved. We are building a self-sustaining ecosystem that will drive the next generation of mobile and developers that join now are aligning themselves with the future of mobile."

Symbian Horizon is currently in preview mode, and companies that have already committed to using it include National Public Radio, Ustream, The Guardian, and Wine.com. The program is expected to be taken out of beta in October, and developers can register for it on the Symbian Foundation's Web site.

Symbian is the world's most widely-used smartphone operating system, and a recent Gartner report estimated it accounted for 49.3% of the worldwide market for the first quarter of 2009. But much of the buzz in the mobile application world centers around Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which has seen more than 1.5 billion downloads in a year. Google's Linux-based Android is also drawing some developer attention because of its open source nature, and it will be powering multiple smartphones by the end of the year.

To better compete with rival platforms, Nokia purchased the remaining shares of Symbian last year and pledged to turn it into an open source, royalty-free operating system. The Symbian Foundation was created to achieve that goal, and its members include industry heavyweights such as AT&T, Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, and Vodafone.

Nokia's decision to create the Symbian Foundation and to open up the OS should have major ramifications throughout the smartphone market. information evaluated the impact of this move, and the report can be downloaded here (registration required).