[3] During its operational phase (from 2009 to 2010), it also provided: The Symbian Foundation invited companies to join as members, and attracted over 200, from a large number of categories:[7] Following "a change in focus for some of [the] funding board members", the Symbian Foundation announced in November 2010 that it would transition to "a legal entity responsible for licensing software and other intellectual property", with no operational responsibilities or staff.

[8] The transition is a result of changes in global economic and market conditions (widely attributed to the stiff competition with other OS such as iOS and Android).

[11] However that year both Samsung and Sony Ericsson left the Foundation in favor of Google's Open Handset Alliance and the Android operating system, leaving Japan's NTT Docomo as the only major Nokia partner.

Then with the announcement of Nokia's partnership with Microsoft in February 2011 and the transition to Windows Phone OS as the primary platform,[12] the development of Symbian stopped and was outsourced to Accenture.

[14] After the transition completed in April 2011, the Symbian Foundation will remain as the trademark holder and licensing entity, and will only have non-executive directors involved.