Head of the newly formed Symbian Foundation (a non-profit organisation launched by Nokia when it acquired the SymbianOS), Lee Williams, has made a surprising and aggressive statement regarding the accessibility of Google’s Android platform.

“Android is not open. It’s a marketing label,” Williams said. “It’s controlled by Google. It’s a pretty label but I don’t think the use of Linux is synonymous with open and they may have made that mistake of assuming it is.”

Google’s Rich Miner was quick to answer the Symbian Foundation’s statement as misleading, and pointed out that Google hasn’t held back any technology from the open source community.

He also highlighted the Symbian Foundation’s restricted membership policy (individuals need not apply) and an annual fee of $1500.

“If you’re talking about a platform and the source code isn’t completely available for that platform, I would say it’s misleading to call that platform open,” Miner responded.

The first of the Symbian Foundation’s handsets were announced at the recent World Mobile Congress, so Williams’s statement comes as the two platforms prepare to go toe-to-toe in the open source market.

Looks like the competition just got aggressive.