Nokia releases new Symbian phones, touts Symbian apps
Nokia launched new Symbian smartphones that appear to be the platform's last gasp before shifting to Windows Phone 7, while also describing developer opportunities related to its mothballed platform in its Ovi Store.
Nokia launches more Symbian models
Meanwhile, Nokia has unveiled two new Symbian models, after announcing earlier this year that Symbian had no future, given the company's new plans to partner with Microsoft to develop Windows Phone 7 smartphones. The business-oriented E6 and consumer X7 are scheduled to launch in the second quarter.
Despite previously outlining a future built around Microsoft's WP7, Jo Harlow, the head of Nokia?s Smart Devices business, said ?With these new products and more Symbian devices and user enhancements coming in the near future, we are confident we can keep existing Nokia smartphone customers engaged, as well as attract new first-time and competitor smartphone users.?
The new phones incorporate the Symbian Anna update, which Nokia plans to also roll out for its existing Nokia N8, E7, C7 and C6-01 models over "the coming months."
The company said "this update offers a host of usability enhancements, including fresh, new icons, improved text input, a faster internet browsing experience and a refreshed Ovi Maps application with improved search and new public transport routes," and added that "Symbian Anna greatly enhances the user experience on Nokia smartphones and makes the Qt business opportunity with Nokia even greater [for developers]."
Mobile market leader takes on iTunes
The company also touted in a separate press release new growth in its Ovi Store, describing an "approximate 200-million-strong Symbian consumer base has seen the Ovi Store catalogue grow to more than 40,000 apps, with about 1,000 added per week."
Given the size of the Symbian installed base and Nokia's still very large market share of all mobile phones, it's surprising that the platform hasn't even caught up to the 65,000 titles available for the iPad, let alone the 350,000 apps for iPhone.
And now, a warning
Nokia ended its press release with an unusually long notice that points out its "intention to form a strategic partnership with Microsoft to combine complementary assets and expertise to form a global mobile ecosystem and to adopt Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform," and notes a string of 37 "risks and uncertainties."
These include "our ability to succeed in creating a competitive smartphone platform for high-quality differentiated winning smartphones or in creating new sources of revenue through the proposed partnership with Microsoft," "our ability to maintain the viability of our current Symbian smartphone platform during the transition to Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform," "our ability to build a competitive and profitable global ecosystem of sufficient scale, attractiveness and value to all participants and to bring winning smartphones to the market in a timely manner, "our ability to implement our strategies, particularly our new mobile product strategy," "unfavorable outcome of litigations," and two dozen other issues.
Nokia launches more Symbian models
Meanwhile, Nokia has unveiled two new Symbian models, after announcing earlier this year that Symbian had no future, given the company's new plans to partner with Microsoft to develop Windows Phone 7 smartphones. The business-oriented E6 and consumer X7 are scheduled to launch in the second quarter.
Despite previously outlining a future built around Microsoft's WP7, Jo Harlow, the head of Nokia?s Smart Devices business, said ?With these new products and more Symbian devices and user enhancements coming in the near future, we are confident we can keep existing Nokia smartphone customers engaged, as well as attract new first-time and competitor smartphone users.?
The new phones incorporate the Symbian Anna update, which Nokia plans to also roll out for its existing Nokia N8, E7, C7 and C6-01 models over "the coming months."
The company said "this update offers a host of usability enhancements, including fresh, new icons, improved text input, a faster internet browsing experience and a refreshed Ovi Maps application with improved search and new public transport routes," and added that "Symbian Anna greatly enhances the user experience on Nokia smartphones and makes the Qt business opportunity with Nokia even greater [for developers]."
Mobile market leader takes on iTunes
The company also touted in a separate press release new growth in its Ovi Store, describing an "approximate 200-million-strong Symbian consumer base has seen the Ovi Store catalogue grow to more than 40,000 apps, with about 1,000 added per week."
Given the size of the Symbian installed base and Nokia's still very large market share of all mobile phones, it's surprising that the platform hasn't even caught up to the 65,000 titles available for the iPad, let alone the 350,000 apps for iPhone.
And now, a warning
Nokia ended its press release with an unusually long notice that points out its "intention to form a strategic partnership with Microsoft to combine complementary assets and expertise to form a global mobile ecosystem and to adopt Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform," and notes a string of 37 "risks and uncertainties."
These include "our ability to succeed in creating a competitive smartphone platform for high-quality differentiated winning smartphones or in creating new sources of revenue through the proposed partnership with Microsoft," "our ability to maintain the viability of our current Symbian smartphone platform during the transition to Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform," "our ability to build a competitive and profitable global ecosystem of sufficient scale, attractiveness and value to all participants and to bring winning smartphones to the market in a timely manner, "our ability to implement our strategies, particularly our new mobile product strategy," "unfavorable outcome of litigations," and two dozen other issues.
Comments
When will people learn to stop hedging their bets on Microsoft technology, this partnership in my humble prediction, is doomed to fail.
Why? What part of Windows Phone 7 do you think isn't good enough when coupled with Nokia's hardware?
"Symbian Anna greatly enhances the user experience on Nokia smartphones and makes the Qt business opportunity with Nokia even greater [for developers]."
Uh? Not even the biggest marketing genius on earth could come up with a smoke-screen dense enough to hide the utter disconnect between these statements and Mr. Elop's "burning platform" memo. "It's a great business opportunity, because it is not competitive, could not catch up to the competitors, and we will soon lay off thousands of people (the idiots who set the platform on fire) who can compete with you Qt developers..."
Why? What part of Windows Phone 7 do you think isn't good enough when coupled with Nokia's hardware?
All of it. Terrible UI which already failed on the Zune. Limited features. No Apps. The few apps that do exist are overpriced. Terrible clone of iTunes software. Terrible clone of Apples App Store...even copied the name.
Basically Windows Phone 7 is a cheap clone of iOS. Just like Windows is a cheap clone of Mac OSX. And Zune is a cheapo grabage clone of iPod. And Zune HD is a cheapo garbage knock off of iPod Touch. See a pattern here?
"And now, a warning" - ROFLOL - This is what happens when you allow lawyers to govern you business. The main role of an attorney is to analyze and inform you of risk, and layout your options. NOT RUN YOUR BUSINESS. These fools apparently have never learned that, probably because their heads are so far up their bureaucratic arses...
Spot on.
Why? What part of Windows Phone 7 do you think isn't good enough when coupled with Nokia's hardware?
Whether WP7 is good enough or not isn't the issue; the issue is that a company as large as Nokia shouldn't bet their future survival on the success of another company's unproven technology. Nokia should be hedging their bets by leveraging both WP7 and Android.
Microsoft is probably paying them a hefty amount to focus solely on WP7, but if that doesn't work out then what will they do?
All of it.
I find a lot of people are incapable of looking at smartphones subjectively because they are so committed to the platform they bought into.
You are one of these people.
I'm not saying that is a bad thing. It's actually great to be passionate about something.
Here is a hint for you though... simply remove iOS in your comparisons and look at each OS compared to the other alternatives.
If you want you can start your evaluation with "If I couldn't have my iPhone..." or end it with "...but they are all crap compared to iOS", but everything in the middle should be a lot more subjective.
Nokia should be hedging their bets by leveraging both WP7 and Android.
Are they still developing Meego? I thought they were going to be Meego & WP7.
If Nokia need something to hold the fort until N9 is ready this November, then do it. Old X6 still has more weight in the market for being a more complete package than LG, Samsung and Acer lineups. The X6 was out of print for a year but still sought after used. Why not use the series with the most fans right now? Liquid, Wave and Optimus are fizzling out, so bring the better X series before they wake up!
Lacking apps aside, as a phone itself I believe this will be the great final sendoff for Symbian handset. Why not come out swinging if this is your 'This Is It' model.
All of it. Terrible UI which already failed on the Zune. Limited features. No Apps. The few apps that do exist are overpriced. Terrible clone of iTunes software. Terrible clone of Apples App Store...even copied the name.
I haven't used the Zune software so you will have to explain this for me. Now, I know iTunes is a horrrible application, it is the Application I have the most issues with, it must be an embarrassment for Apple. By terrible clone, do you mean it works well, or it is (if possible) worse than iTunes?
Given the size of the Symbian installed base and Nokia's still very large market share of all mobile phones, it's surprising that the platform hasn't even caught up to the 65,000 titles available for the iPad, let alone the 350,000 apps for iPhone.
What has their share of non Symbian phones got to do with the number of available Symbian Applications?
I haven't used the Zune software so you will have to explain this for me. Now, I know iTunes is a horrrible application, it is the Application I have the most issues with, it must be an embarrassment for Apple. By terrible clone, do you mean it works well, or it is (if possible) worse than iTunes?
I have never seen the Zune software. Microsoft never released it internationally.
I'd agree with some of your comments on iTunes.
Initially Apple needed a single application to sync music with iPods. A music player / sync manager app was a good idea back then.
Now, more and more functionality has been heaped into iTunes. Application syncing, podcast catching, movie purchasing - the list is endless.
On the Mac, it would have been sensible to split these functions into separate apps. But Apple's support of the Windows platform meant that it had to be glommed into a single distributable Windows package. Not a good decision, but hard to see an alternative. The Windows iTunes contains a mini-Mac OS, along with a complete copy of Safari, Apple's font and display handling, not to mention Quicktime.
iTunes has started to suck on the Mac, and I suspect that it has always sucked on Windows. What Apple needs is a way for devices to talk directly to the internet, and not require a PC chaperoning the relationship.
I am hoping that with iOS5 we are going to see a bit of cord-cutting. Hopefully iTunes will start to become un-necessary.
C.
I find a lot of people are incapable of looking at smartphones subjectively because they are so committed to the platform they bought into.
You are one of these people.
I'm not saying that is a bad thing. It's actually great to be passionate about something.
Here is a hint for you though... simply remove iOS in your comparisons and look at each OS compared to the other alternatives.
If you want you can start your evaluation with "If I couldn't have my iPhone..." or end it with "...but they are all crap compared to iOS", but everything in the middle should be a lot more subjective.
I find a lot of people are paid to astroturf the web with feel good marketing statements. If you are incapable of understanding or respecting someones opinion, why are you bothering to post?
Windows Phone 7 is terrible. Everything about it screams Apple copy. And even with IOS right in front of them, Microsoft managed to mess it all up. How many has it sold? Bascially none. Windows Phone 7 is a total failure, because....it is terrible. Or, i guess it is so good, no one is buying it. Does that statement make you feel better?