Samsung has announced that its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS implementation on the Galaxy S III is now open source.

Earlier this week, the South Korean phone maker launched its new Galaxy S III flagship smartphone to highly anticipating consumers, and it has inserted several striking hardware specifications into the handset, it also added significant features on top of Google’s Android ICS mobile operating system. Samsung now reveals that it has open sourced its Android 4.0 OS source code.

The company released 180MB of source code for Samsung Galaxy S III units, with model number GT-I9300, alongside its original source code release of a 1.2MB update to add support for GT-I9300_MEA, GT-I9300_SEA and GT-I9300_SWA models.

Now that Samsung has open sourced the Galaxy S III code, third-party developers on Android can start integrating parts of the company’s TouchWiz user interface into customized distributions. Custom Android distributions, which include the massively popular Cyanogenmod ROM, cater to users who do not need mobile operator bloated Android app installations and want them wiped out.

The decision to open source its Android code is heart-warming for both developers and users and should serve as a lesson to other phone makers, which include those of other platforms. It also signifies that open sourcing code is not detrimental to revenues of companies in the mobile industry, notwithstanding what other phone makers will make consumers believe.

Samsung open sources Galaxy S III Android ICS code. (Image: Samsung Mobile)

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

Don’t forget to subscribe and receive our latest posts in your inbox.