TapRoot Systems, a developer of embedded software and firmware, has joined the Symbian Platinum Partner Program. Symbian is a software licensing company, owned by several wireless industry companies, that is the supplier of the Sybmian operating system. Symbian said its mission is to create a mass-market for Symbian OS mobile phones, such as the Nokia 9200 Communicator series, the Nokia 3650 & 7650 imaging phones and the Sony Ericsson P800 smartphone.

Symbian said membership in the Platinum Partner Program is open to companies with a proven technology or strategic position that advances the progress and success of data-enabled mobile phones using the Symbian OS. TapRoot Systems will now have membership benefits, including privileged access to Symbian OS source code.

Blane Rockafellow, President of TapRoot Systems says, "This is a terrific opportunity for our company. TapRoot Systems is now able to provide greater contributions to the Symbian wireless value chain. With privileged access to Symbian OS source code, we can build upon our successes developing tightly integrated software and firmware solutions for mobile phone makers, application writers and Symbian licensees."

The first products to emerge from licensing the Symbian OS v7.0 Development Kit are a CDMA TSY Framework and a CDMA TSY Verification Tool Kit. These products from TapRoot Systems are slated to allow handset manufacturers to speed the time-to-market development of data-enabled mobile phones using Symbian OS v7.0.