Efficiency was the force behind the recent decision to take Symbian open source, and not concerns about competition from Google’s Andriod or mobile Linux, John Forsyth, vice president of strategy for Symbian, reportedly said at the Open Mobile Exchange conference in Portland, Ore. Forsyth said that despite Symbian’s 60% market share, lack of research and development efficiency, “was one of our biggest barriers to growth.”

Forsyth also said that Symbian wants to be the face of a mobile-specific open-source community, which doesn’t really exist yet.

Symbian also seems prepared for the pain that can accompany growing; Forsyth finished by saying, “I’m going to wrap up by stating the unbelievably obvious: that we’re going to make a lot of mistakes as we do this.”