Nokia - No More Symbian Phones After 2012 234
mikejuk writes "After the decision to go with Windows Phone 7 it has been obvious that the fate of the Symbian Phone — the phone that sold more than iPhone or Android — wasn't good. However where there is life there is hope and some developers and users clung to the hope that there might be more Symbian phones in the future. Perhaps they could coexist with Nokia Windows Phone 7 devices. Now, in a open letter to developers Nokia have made it clear that they will create no more Symbian phones after 2012 and they will just wait for the old phones to fade way while trying to sell Windows Phones to the existing users."
Re:Goodbye Nokia, it was nice knowing you. (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree that MS is a losing proposition, but symbian will also quickly bring the company to an end. It is a truly terrible OS compared to a modern streamlined OS like iOS of Android.
Re:Why Nokia Why? (Score:2, Insightful)
They do not pay for it, actually Microsoft pays them to use and develop the OS.
Re:Goodbye Nokia, it was nice knowing you. (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree that MS is a losing proposition, but symbian will also quickly bring the company to an end. It is a truly terrible OS compared to a modern streamlined OS like iOS of Android.
Yes. On the other hand, I find Maemo to be better than both iOS and Android. I think the problem was that Nokia lost focus when they decided to start with MeeGo. It would have been wiser to maintain focus on Maemo for another year or two while treating MeeGo as more of a background project.
Re:The end of Nokia (Score:5, Insightful)
The biggest issue was not that they abandoned Symbian. They were already set to do that anyway, what with MeeGo taking over on their highest-end devices and gradually onto mid-tier smartphones.
The biggest blunder was that they abandoned Qt as a development platform. That was their one strategy that would have kept new applications and development coming. You'd write an app using Qt (with some enhancements), and would with minimal effort be able to tailor both Symbian^3 and MeeGo devices.
That train has now left the station. There is now NO SINGLE application environment that a developer can use to tailor current and future Nokia phones. Not Java/J2ME. Not Symbian. Not MeeGo/Maemo. Not Qt.
Nokia has made a lot of serious blunders throughout the last few years (the N85 hardware quality, the N97 software quality, an ASD style management, etc). Allowing themselves to be completely hijacked by Elan/Microsoft for a last ditch futile attempt to promote WP7 is nothing short of astounding. The worlds largest cell phone maker, and at one point in recent history Europe's most valuable company, completely destroyed as little more than a pawn in Steve Ballmer's clumsy quest for making Microsoft relevant again is simply nothing short of astounding.
Nokias. Biggest. Blunder. Ever.
Re:So Basically (Score:2, Insightful)
geeks and fanbois make up an extreme minority and are generally not a market you want to specifically chase for mass market products, if your product appeals to them great, if not then you really haven't lost a lot, those without cash to burn are also without cash to make a profit from.
Re:Cold dead hands (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want my Symbian phone, Nokia, you'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands!
No. They will wait until it breaks and refuse to sell you a replacement.
Re:Mind the gap (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, I don't know if Nokia will walk away from the market, but the market certainly might.
Before: (Nokia to the market) Buy our somewhat-cheap Symbian phones. You can buy Qt apps, and they'll continue to work on Meego when we (finally) release it.
Now: (Nokia to market) Buy our somewhat-cheap Symbian phones. You can buy Qt apps, and they won't work on our new, high-end phone line. And we'll make vague statements about Meego, while burying it in a few months.
Now: (Market to Nokia). And why shouldn't I buy a cheap Chinese/Indian Android phone, buy my apps, and move up to a nice Android phone (with apps intact) later?
Re:The end of Nokia (Score:5, Insightful)
yeah.
from a buisness POV this makes even less sense.
if winmo7 fails - they're dead.
If the Winmo7 strategy works, everyone will go tho winmo7 and gut them. then they'll be dead.
Nokia's ex-CEO said something about wsitching to android is like peeing yourself in winter time for warmth. all I see when I look at Nokia is a giant puddle, and the urin wasn't even warm to begin with.
Re:The end of Nokia (Score:5, Insightful)
I basically agree with you. It was definitely not the decision to ditch Symbian. Frankly, I was never impressed with Symbian in the first place. I never got a chance to play with MeeGo because they abandoned my N810 before they could port the software over to it.
And the decision to go with Windows phone? Well, pretty much everyone knew what that meant from the first news of it. I have never known a happy Windows phone user. Never. Not one. Some might intuitively thing the best MS Exchange support would be found there -- wrong -- it was iPhone. Microsoft once measured their success by how much "piracy" was going on with their apps, their OSes and the apps written for their OSes. "Look how popular we are!" Have a look at any file sharing site... see anything for Windows phones? I can't say that I have ever seen anything except, perhaps, OS update loads for Dell Axiom... I know, not a phone, but you see have far I had to go?
Microsoft isn't ever going to be mainstream with their Windows phones.
And still the industries out there cannot manage to resist Microsoft's call. When Microsoft partners up with you, watch out. If the partnership goes bad, you are the loser. If the partnership goes good, Microsoft will buy you in short order. This has been going on for a very long time. No one seems to notice.
Re:Goodbye Nokia, it was nice knowing you. (Score:4, Insightful)
It is a gamble, but not as much as a gamble as sticking with symbian, symbian has been dead for a while
Symbian still has the largest installed base of any phone OS, and was just recently surpassed by android as the most sold phone OS. It may have strong in a lower-end market segment with lower margins, and it may have been declining, but saying it was dead is just US-centric uninformed drivel. Transitioning away from it with an application compatibility path provided by Qt may have been a good strategy, but by just dumping it for microsoft WP7 they are basically committing harakiri in emerging markets where they are by far the strongest phone maker.
Re:The end of Nokia (Score:2, Insightful)
Business POV it makes perfect sense.
IF WinMo fails, the Board and the executives all will make millions in corporate golden parachutes, there is negative risk to them. The Major shareholders will make a profit from the liquid state of the company. Who gives a rats ass about the minor shareholders.
If WinMO succeeds , The Board and Executives all will make Bigger Millions in corporate golden parachutes, There is a bigger negative risk to them. The Major Shareholders will make a tidy profit in the stock exchange from the liquidation of the company. Who gives a rats ass about the minor shareholders.
THIS is how business really works. They fuck the little guys to make sure that no matter what he Executives, board, and major shareholders will make money. They make that money off of the minor shareholders.
It's why I will not play stocks anymore, it's stacked and the only way to make real money in the market is to ride on the coattails of the horribly rich and hope they dont notice you or to be exceedingly lucky. The number of hours I have wasted on ScottTrade and the profits I made equated to the Hourly rate I was making already. Screw that. I'd rather work more hours for zero risk than those hours every evening until bed at 100% risk. I'm parking my money in CD's to simply stave off inflation.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)