Troubled handset giant Nokia has unveiled the latest flavour of its Symbian operating system, which it will use to attack the mass market smartphone sector. Symbian Belle is the latest in a series of planned software updates, increasing the number of home screens from three to six and enhancing the capabilities of live widgets.
To a man with an iHammer, everything looks like an iNail, as the Informer’s great friend Mark Twain once said. And just to prove the old man right, the powers-that-be at Cupertino are suing Samsung, HTC, Mother Theresa, Adam and Eve and growers of mostly green, rather tasty pieces of fruit for infringing on its intellectual property. Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter, who wouldn’t have been able to attend legal proceedings in person as she couldn’t get the time off from kindergarten, settled out of court.
In what appears to be another move to distance itself from Symbian, Nokia on Wednesday announced plans to outsource development of the floundering operating system to consultancy and outsourcing firm Accenture. As part of the process, the Finnish giant will also transition some 3,000 employees to the outsourcing firm.
Nokia’s Ovi app store has hit the five million downloads a day mark, despite speculation regarding its future since the Finnish manufacturer entered a deal with Microsoft earlier this year. The app store offers more than 40,000 products but many believe it’s unlikely to survive in the context of Nokia’s agreement to ship Windows 7 phones from 2012 onwards. Microsoft has its own app store, Windows Marketplace, and it seems unlikely that the pair can co-exist in an ultra-competitive market.
Nokia has announced that its Symbian platform is no longer open source. The news comes less than a year after the now-defunct Symbian Foundation released the first completely open version of the OS, with Nokia saying that its “open and direct” model referred to its business plan rather than the Symbian source code.
Despite its February announcement of a partnership deal with Microsoft, Nokia has reiterated its commitment to the Symbian platform. Many interpreted Nokia’s decision to adopt the Windows 7 mobile platform as the end of the road for Symbian; the once dominant platform has been struggling to keep up with Android in the market-share stakes and recently slipped behind it for the first time.
The Google-backed Android operating system overtook Nokia’s Symbian during the fourth quarter of 2010 to become the leading platform in the smartphone segment according to market analyst firm Canalys. Shipments of Android devices reached 32.9 million by Canalys’ estimation, with Symbian trailing on 31.0 million. Symbian’s performance keeps Nokia in first position among the vendors, however, with 28 per cent market share in the top tier, the analyst said.
Will Nokia’s new CEO push the company to adopt a multiple OS strategy? The answer to this question could be revealed on February 11th during Nokia’s Strategy and Financial Briefing.
The Symbian SEE shows kicked off in Amsterdam on Tuesday and it’s probably quite an interesting event to be at. If only because all the rumours were true: the Foundation will transition into another entity and the Symbian operating system itself will finally be absorbed by Nokia.
The Symbian Foundation issued a cursory statement late on Tuesday announcing the immediate departure of executive director Lee Williams for personal reasons, fuelling speculation about the future of the organisation.
Keen to get the message out, Finnish handset giant Nokia said Wednesday that its forthcoming flagship device – the N8 – will be available to purchase in stores on October 22.
Still in damage control mode, Finnish handset giant Nokia assured the world on Thursday that its flagship Symbian^3 device, the N8, has started shipping.
The Informer apologises for starting the third AWIW in a row with tales of Nokia’s woes but by all accounts it’s been a pretty quiet week in the world of telecoms, no doubt drawing further attention to the embattled Finnish vendor. Newly installed Nokia chief Stephen Elop had only been in the captain’s chair a few hours – a chair no doubt still warm from the posterior of his predecessor, OPK – when he had to deal with news of expected delays to the forthcoming N8 handset.
The number of smartphone users worldwide is expected to exceed the one billion mark by 2013, with growth driven by ongoing competition between top tier OEMS and challengers such as Google, RIM, Apple and Microsoft, all of which are racing to create the best possible user experience at lower pricing points.
Finnish handset vendor Nokia launched a suite of new smartphones at its London Nokia World event on Tuesday, amid the boardroom turmoil that has seen departure announcements for its two most senior executives within days of one another.
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