Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop announced recently what seems to be the end of Symbian. But, he might be underestimating Nokia’s dependency on the aging operating system.
Symbian is bringing some needed revenue for Nokia, although not enough to keep their leadership position. It is not surprising that Nokia has announced a move away from Symbian. It is surprising that the death of Symbian is so readily predicted before any real sign that the plan B will be successful. By moving to Windows, Elop is betting all his chips in red number 7.
Betting on a losing horse
The signs are not good for Window Phone 7, and it will not help to pair up with a phone manufacturer which many consumers now consider out of touch with what they want.
The initial buzz has been quickly stump out by an advertisement campaign that fails to communicate the value of this new platform.
As Google and Apple have proved now repeated times, the tipping point for a mobile platform is the application developers. While Microsoft brings to this partnership fantastic assets in App Development environment, it joins the battle too late.Why will you write an application for WP7, when you can write it for Android or iPhone?
Getting rid of Symbian
So in summary, Windows Phone 7 is a platform that brings additional license cost, has no consumer pull and it is not adopted widely by OEMs. Nokia will find themselves not only paying the license fee but also doing the leg work on their own of bringing the platform to a good quality level and attracting developers. It will be a ground hog day.
Elop’s strategy heavily depends on WP7 phones selling and selling lots. When (and not if) these sales fail to materialise, he will find himself craving every dollar that Symbian brings to Nokia. Unfortunately Nokia will continue their dependency on a ever less competitive platform, instead of working on a real solution to their problems.
Victor Tuson Palau 
If Nokia wants to get rid of Symbian, it should have choose Android. Windows phones are behind Symbian. People don’t want Windows phones. People wants Android phones. Why bet in a loosing horse instead of follow the trend ?
Suena absurdo, el único sistema verdaderamente mas estable y posicionado comercialmente es Symbian, Android sonará muy atrevido, pero le cuelgan los años para generar en el consumidor una sensación de bienestar. Nokia debe diversificarse, popr eso alude al monstruo de SIlicon Valley MS. Pero lejos de eso. Al cerrar el código y la puerta de Symbian Foundation, regresará en nuevas y prometidas versiones, cada ves mas estables y poderosas, mientras tanto, Maemo (que corre sobre Linux) será el estandarte. No por nada Nokia ha resultado ser el mejor competidor no solo en materia de celulares si no también en la manera como estos trabajan y casi todos los accesorios de “navaja suiza” han sido diseñados, ingeniados y dispuestos por la Finlandesa Nokia. Se los dejo de tarea. Android’ ni en risa, talves en unos años, odio los bugs y ser de los primeros tontos que se aventuran por “moda” a adquirir cualquier clase de dispositivo sin estar convencido de las reales prestaciones, muy por delante del hardware con que estos cuenten. Animo Nokia!!!
I can´t understand how Nokia´s management team join to a loser mobile software plataform. Windows Phone has only 2% of market share.
How someone can have a stupid idea like that.
This partnership is doomed to failure, worse to Nokia, because Windows Phone is already a loser.
Self interest. Elop has a good enough of M$ share. And if Nokia die, he could sell it and get a big cut like what he did to macromedia.
Nokia is a fool to kill symbian. and anyone who thinks they should tie up with android are equally big fools.
nokia is a giant in the phone scape and need their own proprietary OS to be able to have a competitive and profitable edge.
most consumers are not geeks. they dont care what is the OS. they want features: touch screen/keypads, email, browsing, music, camera, apps whatever.
nokia has had the advantage of great hardware and a loyal following. they are losing it all to this guy from MS who is killing Nokia’s software!
what nokia needs is to build strong excitement around its products. something that android has been able to do. something that apple has been able to do.
symbain already offers all the features that consumers want. they just want to see it in a more reassuring and exciting avatar.
I don’t see how everyone thinks that symbian is a dead platform on its own accord, Nokia killed Symbian with disgraceful hardware, Look at there last 2 flagships, The N97, With 440mhz processor, resistive screen, 50mb ram at startup?
And now the N8, when everyone else is bringing out 1ghz and dual cores, they bring out a 680MHZ?
I have a Samsung I8910, and they got it right, and remember this was in 2009. 600MHZ processor, 720p video, 8mp camera, AMOLED screen, If it wasn’t for nokia’s exclusivity, the I8910 would have been a beast, and Symbian may just have survived.
Basically, Don’t blame the platform for your own shitty hardware, If they make a real good specs phone and put S^3 on it, It will compete with android and IOS eventually
Right, will they learn that lesson and put smoking hot hw on wp7 phones? Doubt it.
There is nothing wrong with Symbian, just sluggish hardware and not keeping up fast enough with user interfaces. Put faster processors and release your latest user interfaces TODAY and not 12months down the track when everyone else has already gotten ahead…