Symbian Limited today announced the formal foundation of Symbian Software India Private Limited in Bangalore, India. Symbian develops and licenses Symbian OS™, the leading mobile operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones, also known as smartphones, to the world’s leading handset manufacturers.

This announcement signals Symbian’s growing commitment to Symbian OS development in India. In 2003 Symbian established an Offshore Development Centre (ODC) in Bangalore, in partnership with MphasiS Technologies with a commitment to develop a Symbian-owned subsidiary by 2006. Symbian now has a 150-strong software development and engineering team based in Bangalore that complements the flexibility and strengths of Symbian’s global software development activity. Symbian currently employs 1,000 software engineers worldwide.

Symbian intends to recruit in India during the second half of 2005 and beyond in order to expand its Bangalore development activities. The Bangalore development teams will focus on core Symbian OS and application technologies and product development to meet Symbian’s growing customer and product requirements.