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Gadgets Nokia Confirms Symbian to Fade Away
Mark Kurlyandchik - March 28, 2011 3:24 PM
Print 25 comment(s) - last by shortylickens.. on Apr 3 at 10:45 AM
Introduces new typeface and branding in effort to move forward

It's no secret that, even before Nokia announced its "strategic partnership" with Microsoft, the most popular mobile OS on the planet, Symbian, was in the midst of a slow death. But the deal to bring Windows Phone 7 to Nokia devices certainly had a big impact in accelerating Symbian's decline.

Nokia's VP Purnima Kochikar has confirmed that Symbian will likely just fade away in an open letter to developers, despite the fact that there are a number of Symbian-based devices in the pipeline during the "transition period" of 2011-2012.

"In many markets, including markets where Symbian is currently the lead smartphone platform with significant market share such as China, India, Russia and Turkey, we will continue to make our Symbian portfolio as competitive as possible while we work with Microsoft to introduce Windows Phone," the letter says.

But when pressed to give a cut-off for the OS, Kochikar equivocates: "We cannot give you the date when Symbian will no longer be supported.

"Our intention is that when users come to the end of the natural lifecycle of their Symbian device they will make the change to a Nokia Windows Phone device and so it would not be in our interests to undermine their Nokia smartphone experience."

Meanwhile, Nokia has begun a rebranding phase, starting with a new font and look for promotional materials. The new font, dubbed "Nokia Pure" is meant to look, well, "pure and simple." The flow of the letters is intended to create "the impression of forward movement."

In addition to promotional materials, the new font will be used on Nokia devices. According to the Nokia blog, the font has been designed specifically for use in mobile and digital environments.

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RE: Uh oh!
By Breakfast Susej on 3/28/2011 4:22:50 PM , Rating: 5
That's what is known as a gamble. In this case a big gamble. Sticking with Symbian though was likely an inevitable death as well, if albeit a slow one, possibly.

I personally think they should have gone Android, and I would have loved to see some high quality nokia android handsets. It would have been a massive win for Android as well. But then we already know that Microsoft threw down some serious dollars to buy Nokia's loyalty.

So really it's not entirely accurate calling it a pure gamble since the cash Microsoft forked out (It was something like a billion dollars wasn't it?) softens the blow so to speak in trying out WP7.

Though I'm guessing that billion might as well be peanuts if it doesn't take off.

In the end we shall see. But hey what else would us nerds have to entertain us in life without gadget soap operas?


RE: Uh oh!
By radium69 on 3/28/2011 5:26:45 PM , Rating: 3
I'm tired of android already. All this hype with interfaces multitouch bla bla bla.

I want a phone that can call easily with one button. Can make pictures with one button. Nice easy format. Have standard t9 keyboard. etc etc.

I find my galaxy S annoying to use. Complicated options and strange options.

I have used a lot of phones in the past.
Nokia's symbian is still brilliant to use (symbian 2)
Sony ericssons interface aswell.

Those are the only two brands that have great feedback and usability...

I hope this touch/iphone/android/gadget hype dies soon.
Teens all over the place with blackberries texting the heck out of those phones.

It's either a superduper hyperdeluxe smartphone xxl 7 inch screen without a keyboard. Or a crap budget phone that excells basically , at nothing.

And i'm not even talking about battery life with a smartphone...

When does it stop, when do people realize they are just "gimmicks" and that they don't provide much more then just a "standard" phone.

I feel like I'm the only one...


RE: Uh oh!
By adiposity on 3/28/2011 5:42:55 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
I want a phone that can call easily with one button

Can make pictures with one button. Nice easy format.

Have standard t9 keyboard. etc etc.

It's either a superduper hyperdeluxe smartphone xxl 7 inch screen without a keyboard. Or a crap budget phone that excels basically , at nothing.



But the crap budget phone, does all the things you want! Get the crap budget phone.


RE: Uh oh!
By retrospooty on 3/29/2011 8:27:02 AM , Rating: 2
LOL - exactly, and they give them away for free with a 2 year contract. Sometimes they even give you cash back for taking them.


RE: Uh oh!
By Souka on 3/29/2011 11:28:58 AM , Rating: 2
I sat next to a Win7 mobile project manager at a dinner event (free wine/beer) and he became quite talkative.

One statement really stood out... "we're really relying on Nokia to keep Win7 competitive"

He had a Win7 phone... didn't seem very proud saying "it's ok" or "it works well enough" (previously had the Android Incredible).
His wife, also worked at MS (non Win7 mobile)was using an iPhone4... she tried some of the Win7 devices, but thought they had a long way to go to be useable.

Too funny I think.


RE: Uh oh!
By Belard on 3/28/2011 6:00:34 PM , Rating: 2
errr...

then go buy a SONY standard phone. Nobody is putting a gun to your head to buy ANY kind of a smart phone. Give Windows Phone7 a try, its pretty simplistic and clean.

Blackberry makes a 9700 series phone which is NOT a touch screen.

(A friend had one of those, went Android - won't go back to Blackberry).

There are other phones than Samsung. Motorola is doing quite well with their latest phones, some have keyboards.


RE: Uh oh!
By Belard on 3/28/2011 6:05:23 PM , Rating: 2
Oh yeah... about T9, which SONY does a great job.

Uh... texting on my Galaxy Android phone blows it away in every way.

Sony's latest 10 phones are Android / touch screens... they may keep 1-2 dumb phones available.


RE: Uh oh!
By piroroadkill on 3/29/2011 8:46:21 AM , Rating: 1
You're not the "only one" it's just that you wanted a basic phone, but you seem to have got confused and bought a smartphone instead.

A crap budget phone DOES excel at standard T9, taking photos, and calling people. Nokia have been doing shit like that for YEARS.


RE: Uh oh!
By koenshaku on 3/28/2011 5:35:17 PM , Rating: 2
I love the WP7 interface and feel it is unrivaled in that respect in fact most people I should it to want one instantly, but it just doesn't have the apps yet so I still use my Iphone as my main device. I am anxious about it coming to nokia devices and you really can't judge how well a phone OS is selling until a few years especially with all that is out there I think they've done will with selling millions over the sku's they currently have.


RE: Uh oh!
By StraightCashHomey on 3/28/2011 9:33:46 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. I just bought the HTC Arrive last Monday. I'm loving it. The interface is really nice and intuitive. If MS would have released WP7 at the time Apple released iOS or at the time that Google released Android, then I really feel like it would be the dominate player in the market right now. Obviously, they didn't release it then, so we have what we have. A new player with little knowledge of its existance.

By the way, if you like integrating SharePoint, MS Office, and Lync/OCS into your cell phone, WP7 is the way to go. It's a great personal phone that can dual as a productivity phone, and none of the other phones out there can really make that claim.


RE: Uh oh!
By robinthakur on 3/29/2011 5:57:09 AM , Rating: 2
I must admit that as SharePoint Architect, the SharePoint and Office integration i a very compelling feature of the W7 system. However it's not enough to make me let go of my iPhone4/Blackberry Torch for now.

MS should concentrate on the business case for W7, it appears too consumer targeted at this point. During my 10 minute play on a colleague's phone, the nicely smooth interface just doesn't seem very corporate and is confusing to some people. Not everybody wants a social media feed so prominent for example, and it manages to make the iPhone and iPad (toys in many people's eyes) seem quite work friendly by comparison. Sooo many businesses are leveraging SharePoint at the moment and access on the move is not easy on any platform (it just about works on the iPhone, but not in an authenticated way) so I feel they should make the most of their advantage in this area by telling organisations and showing them how great the integration can be. It's wrong that most companies find that Blackberry and iPhones integrates better with Exchange than Microsoft's own phones...at my old place of work (in the UK), they were rolling out iPads and most employees has iPhones, so it was a natural leap.


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