Symbian is dead [0]. It has been for a while. And Nokia will be too
unless it adopts a new strategy very quickly. The figures from the
article make this crystal clear: "Symbian's global market share has gone
from 51 percent in the second quarter of 2009 to 41 percent in the same
period of 2010". It's equally clear that it is Android that has hastened
its demise.<p>It am still astonished when I remember Nokia buying (the rest of)
Symbian in June 2008. This seemed a bizarre waste of money. And so it
proved. (The purchase of Trolltech was earlier, but surprising
nonetheless.) Perhaps if they had done so years earlier, and open
sourced it, then things might have been different.<p>My opinion on the failure of Symbian was the failure to enagage
developers. That, and the most tortuous development environment and
deployemnt process that I have ever witnessed. Perhaps this could have
been fixed, given time, starting earlier, but corporate institutions
historically don't behave in ways to allow this. Regardless, it was much
to late by the spending sprees of 2008.<p>Nokia should shunt Symbina into the siding now and adopt Android
immediately. It should get back to making great phones.<p>[0] It has its place in some phones, arguably, but how long would you choose to
continue to develop and support it when there is no long term need.
Sony Ericsson isn't <i>that</i> heavily into Symbian anyway. Most of their phones use a Java platform run on top of an OS - Symbian being one of the OSs, but they also use proprietary OSs for the cheaper phones. It was Java that was their focus.<p>They are just riding the Android and Win7 wave, while the competition isn't too high, and in the long term, I predict they will focus on their own platforms again. There's no other reason why Samasung would be developing Bada for example.
Is still Sony-Ericsson relevant on the smartphone market?<p>Android phones made by SE are still based on the 1.5, 1.6 version and even the top of the noch, the Xperia X10, will not receive 2.1 till end of october...<p>It's sad but SE will not be missed by Symbian.
It's a damning indictment of Symbian's failure that the HN crowd can't summon the energy to debate it.<p>RIP Symbian. You served a purpose, but now it's time to die.
It's all about developers baby <a href="http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/appcelerator.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/appceler...</a>.<p>All the developers are over at iOS and Android. There are still some developers left over in the RIM and Windows Phone camp.<p>I am an iOS dev, Android dev and Windows Phone dev spending my time in that order. And most of that is on the one with the best market.<p>All the coup de tats in technology, an initial phase is stealing/attracting developers. Then comes the apps that people want. Then come thy platform and market. Rinse repeat. It is no longer just a phone strategy.<p>Symbian, Thy Game is Over. Nokia can maybe re-emerge as they still sell well, but seriously setback now.