Newly created open source outfit, the Symbian Foundation, has announced a raft of new members, demonstrating increased support for the platform.

On Tuesday, Acrodea, Brycen, HI Corporation, Ixonos, KTF, Opera Software, Sharp, TapRoot Systems and UIQ Technology added their endorsement to the foundation.

The organisation was formed in the wake of Nokia’s June acquisition of the remaining 52.1 per cent of Symbian that it didn’t already own, uniting it with the S60, UIQ and MOAP platforms.

With the backing of Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo, the Foundation also proposed to introduce an open source licence model for Symbian and the S60, UIQ and DoCoMo’s MOAP platforms.

Analysts estimate Nokia paid out more than $250m in Symbian licence fees last year, so it makes commercial sense to buy up the mobile handset OS for about $410m, rather than keep paying a subsidy to other shareholders.

To date, 40 companies have confirmed commitment to the initiative, including the ten initial board members: AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.