Symbian Foundation executive director Lee Williams has resigned suddenly and has been replaced by CFO Tim Holbrow.
Williams, who has headed the foundation for two years, left for “personal reasons,” Symbian said in an email to media outlets.
The company did not report the news on its website, but updated the site to list Holbrow as executive director.
Williams’ departure from the UK-based group follows the tepid launch of Nokia’s N8 – the first on the new Symbian ^3 platform – and the news that Sony Ericsson is also abandoning the OS in favor of Android.
Now Nokia is the only handset-maker to use Symbian, but it is also developing a separate platform, Meego, believed to be for tablets and high-end smartphones.
New CEO Stephen Elop has not commented on handset platforms. Analysts and investors will monitor his remarks closely when Nokia reports its quarterly result Thursday.
Symbian began life as a company jointly owned by the biggest handset-makers. Most sold out their share and Nokia turned it into an open-source operation in 2008.
In a video interview with GigaOm last year - re-posted today – Williams claimed that handset makers such as Motorola, HTC and Samsung were upset by the way Google was disrupting the value chain and pointed out that Samsung, Nokia and Sony Ericsson were all using Symbian.
Says GigaOm: “In the year since we spoke with Williams, it’s become clear that Android has the momentum in the market, and Symbian just doesn’t yet have the firepower to challenge that.
“If you don’t believe me, just ask the companies mentioned in the interview that have either dropped the platform or never even used it in the first place. They’re still around, still making money and still embracing Android.”
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