Nokia has released the source code to their Series 60 web browser as open source software in a bid to encourage development of the browser and bolster support for the Symbian Series 60 platform for mobile handsets.

The web browser source code released by Nokia comes under the terms of the open source BSD license, a highly permissive software license with few requirements that is one of the most popular licenses among free software developers worldwide.

The source can be downloaded from Nokia's WebKit Open Source Project at www.webkit.org. The S60 browser supports rendering of pages as they currently exist on the general Internet, including support for dynamic HTML and AJAX technologies.

"Nokia's open source based Web Browser for S60 leads the way for Internet browsing on mobile devices," said Przemek Czarnecki, executive vice president of Terminal Technology, T-Mobile International. "Its innovative handling of website navigation, which is similar to using a web browser on the desktop, is of particular interest to T-Mobile as we are closely working on Internet browsing with our product 'web'n'walk'. The use of open source to achieve greater website compatibility is an important strategy for the mobile industry."

The first handsets to support the S60 browser will be the E60, E61, E70, N71, N73, N80, N91, N92, N93 and 3250.