Did you read that?

The Really Mobile Project: Nokia dropping Symbian from N-Series by 2012

The blogs are buying it and go crazy about it. See Techmeme!

But one commentator on All About Maemo says:

I think the blogger has got his facts slightly incorrect.

What I was told last night was that Symbian would no longer be used for N-Series devices between now and 2012 - not that Symbian would be dropped by 2012 as the blogger has posted.

The blogger gives the impression there is no future for Symbian after 2012 but I don't think that's the case at all, which is that between now and 2012 Symbian will be relegated to phones where multitasking, multimedia and eye candy are not essential. I believe that when Symbian^4 is ready (funnily enough, around about 2012) then Symbian will be reconsidered for N-Series devices, possibly displacing Maemo (assuming they aren't merged somehow).

What's your take? Has anybody been there and can tell the truth?

It does kinda fit with the strategy we are all hearing about... and this is just on N-Series devices... I would hope that they extend it beyond N-Series and eventually out to some of their lower price point X series devices which are touch intensive and mass market for games, ebooks and fun.

Too sad. There is already an official retraction from Nokia's side:

“While it is our policy not to disclose details of our product roadmap, we’d like to explicitly communicate that we remain firmly committed to Symbian as our smartphone platform of choice. Any speculation on what our 2012 roadmap, including operating systems and product branding, are completely premature.

As we have stated earlier, Nokia has multiple platforms to serve different purposes and address different markets. Symbian is more successful than ever in bringing smartphones to the masses. Maemo is our software of choice for devices based on technology that you’d typically find inside a desktop computer. It delivers a different user experience and enables us to widen the market we can address.”

Although Slashgear says "but that doesn’t mean it’s not accurate; it just means Nokia don’t want to talk about it today".

I particularly like this quote:

"It’s a case of neglecting to feed the dog, then saying it can’t afford the vet’s bill" from El Reg

There's a figure been occasionally bandied around this forum, saying that a Nokia phone takes around two years from conception to release. So the statement that "Symbian would no longer be used for N-Series devices between now and 2012" is probably isomorphic to "There are no new Symbian N-series phones currently in the pipeline".

@mgoebel: the Nokia response sounds to me like a confirmation rather than a retraction. Reading between the lines, it seems to be saying that Symbian will be on smartphones (E series) and Maemo on mobile computers (N series).

Ultimately, series names are just marketing, so all this really says is that both Symbian and Maemo have a future within Nokia. No biggie.