Originally Posted by christexaport

Symbian is about as dead as any OS that owns half of the market. I have to call some of the shadetree analysts out. You can't quote singular analyst reports and news headlines as reliable sources. It takes heavy scrutinization of the data and a knowledge of the markets across the globe to get it right.

It took Apple's record-breaking growth for two straight years to get just ~15% of the global smartphone market. In one year, Android has a huge ~5%. At that pace, and with Symbian able to hold its 50% share, and a new UI coming soon, and with the fifth most visible brand in the world behind it, and with African, Indian, and Asian markets loving it (besides the US, those are the main growth markets for mobiles), and with a mature core, I wish the competitors luck.

The fact of the matter is that outside of the US market, Android and the iPhone are minor players. They're heavily leveraged in the US, and a disruption like a new Symbian on carrier shelves alonside a new WInMo could have an effect on the both OSes.

Maemo can't replace Symbian, nor can iPhone. It won't run on the cheap hardware needed in the developing markets of Asia, Africa, and India. Its a strictly high end offering. We're geeks, but not everyone can afford a $500-700 device. Symbian is too versatile and expensive to be ditched.

The issue is product development. Carriers, ODMs, OEMs, etc. can't waste budgets making devices for an OS that will be revamped soon, so only the incumbents, Nokia, Samsung, and SE, are making devices now. Once Symbian^4 is hardened, more device manufacturers will join in making hardware, and we'll see the same growth we see in Android with Symbian^4, and not starting at 0%, but at 30-40% marketshare.

So while Andriod is battling WinMo, RIM, and the iPhone, Symbian will reconquer the world. Maemo may take some of the traditonal Symbian ground, but both will eat at the competition, while complimenting each other. Symbian isn't going anywhere, but will be a conduit for Maemo devs to sell code.

Originally Posted by cb474

I don't think anyone is suggesting that Nokia should just kill Symbian and move on. People need to stop caricaturing the arguments of others, when disagreeing with them.

I do think Symbian will be increasingly demoted to the lower end of Nokia's product line and occupy the space of what was formerly feature phones and slowly be replaced. It will die a slow death.

Here's two articles about the Symbian Exchange and Exposition tradeshow that just happened:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technol...5875-21777860/
http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=20916

They both talk about how the mood was down. Developers are jumping ship for the iPhone and Android. Many complain Symbian is harder to develop for. Orders for applications on Symbian are drying up. Samsung and Sony-Ericsson are moving away from Symbian.

One developer even uses the "die" word himself: "I think Symbian is far behind…If there is no change in user friendliness, and opening of the environment, I think it will die – they have to react."

The only people who are positive are the Symbian foundation people and the Nokia marketing people, who of course have to be positive. Saying things like Symbian has an advantage because it was the first smartphone platform, as if because it was first means it can't die.

Originally Posted by cb474

I don't think anyone is suggesting that Nokia should just kill Symbian and move on...I do think Symbian will be increasingly demoted to the lower end of Nokia's product line and occupy the space of what was formerly feature phones and slowly be replaced. It will die a slow death.

Originally Posted by Enyibinakata

At the end of the day, Symbian will remain dominant (NOKIA gets it) and with improvements to its communication architecture (freeway etc) and the impressive screenplay technology, QT, QTOrbit, ability to run on SMP arch (ARM cortex A5 / Mali) and not to forget its very open philosophy.

Originally Posted by Crashdamage

Basically, I agree. Although christexaport made some good points about a Symbian rejuvenation, I gotta think it will only make Symbian a better OS for it's old age and slow demise. Not because it has no real value, not through any particular fault in Symbian or an evil scheme, but because improvements in hardware will render it obsolete in a few years.

IOW, he's right that presently Maemo only can run well on expensive, high-end hardware. It's a powerful OS. But today's killer hardware is tomorrow's low-end hardware. It happens pretty quickly. 5 years ago the Razr was introduced as a $500 wonder of miniaturization. In a few years when Maemo happily runs on a $50 unit, there just won't be much need for Symbian. Nokia can then simplify their efforts to a single Maemo platform (likely a few versions for running different levels of hardware) and let go of Symbian. It may still survive as a open source OS for what by then would be considered low-end phones, but probably not much else.

I've never owned a Symbian phone so that possible outcome doesn't bother me. Maemo/Linux is so powerful and adaptable it seems clearly more capable of growing along with future technology so I see such an outcome as a Good Thing. But I can understand it might bring some sadness to longtime old-school Symbian people. Some Windoze users still wish for a DOS comeback too. Sometimes ya just gotta move on...

Originally Posted by Enyibinakata

Symbian will die ?

Not a chance.

FYI Symbian is not s60 - I cannot believe how people that should know better keep making this mistake. Please try and do some research - Symbian OS micro-kernel is still the most fit for purpose out there. I will go out on a limb and say it multi-tasks more efficiently than all the other mostly Linux based competitors out there thanks to Demand paging technique. The webOs, Android, jailbroken iPhone multitasking saps battery like mad and the jury is still out on Maemo but I doubt it will do much better in this department.

The E71 for example is known to go for days without needing a charge. My 5800 keeps going - I've been listening to podcasts for a while, the browser is running in the background, made some calls etc but battery indicator unmoved.

...

Oh dear you just dont get it do you. Its about Scalability - Symbian can operate across the spectrum. You should check out the Samsung i8910HD yes it supports HD video capture. Consider the Sony SATIO, it supports a 12Megapixel camera and they both run Symbian. The SATIO uses the same CPU as n900 and iPhone.

Originally Posted by Enyibinakata

improvement in hardware will render Symbian obsolete ?

Oh dear you just dont get it do you.

NOKIA obviously know better than us all - which is why they'll keep Symbian as their flagship OS. I love Maemo, but its there to tide NOKIA over until Symbian^4 is released.

Originally Posted by Crashdamage

My point is as hardware improves, Maemo/Linux will run on nearly anything. More and more users will expect a more 'desktop' type of experience. This will include such things as, for example, drivers for most printers included so they can print to bluetooth-enabled printers from the phone. Maemo is better suited for a general-purpose 'desktop' pocket computer. Symbian is, as I understand it, and correct me if I'm wrong, better suited to more specialized duties. The 'bloated' monolithic Linux kernel vs the Symbian micro/nano kernel, everything you might need vs only what you need, or IOW, a pocket computer (Maemo) vs a smartphone (Symbian).

What I'm saying above is what Nokia 'gets'. The pocket desktop computer is the future. Why else would they spend the time and money on Maemo and introduce it as their new high-end OS? (They did, ya know.)