Topic: Symbian? (Nokia's old smartphone OS)

[tendoboy1984]

I've been reading about how Nokia killed off Symbian to support Microsoft and Windows Phone. I'm guessing that was a smart move, because Symbian isn't quite a household name like Android, iPhone, and Windows. (I first learned about it during Nokia's Windows Phone announcement)

It's ironic, because Symbian has supposedly been around longer than all of those platforms, yet barely anyone talks about it. If Symbian was so popular, then why didn't it get more publicity from developers and journalists? Even Blackberry is more well known, and that platform is more or less irrelevant now.

[Brandogg]

Symbian is the shitty old OS you find on some crappy Nokia phone you'd get off of eBay. The ironic thing is that they jumped from one sinking ship to another. Windows phone is now at 3.2% (down from 3.6% in July).

[Plugabugz]

Symbian is the best OS ever. It was rock solid (before it started expanding post-iPhone), the battery life was solid and bugs were few and far between.

[Ceric]

Symbian is a phone OS.  It was not designed to be a Smartphone OS.  It was a different time when it was made.

*Shrug*  The biggest problem Windows Phone has is that people don't want to try it.  Its an excellent phone that will do most of what people want without downloading a single app.

[TJ Spyke]

Symbian will still be around for awhile, Nokia signed a deal to let Accenture keep supporting it until 2016. Before iOS, Symbian actually had like 60% of the cell phone market share.

[tendoboy1984]

So Symbian was never designed to be a smartphone OS? That explains why I've never heard of it; cell-phone makers never placed emphasis on designing a capable OS in the pre-smartphone era.

So once iOS and Android hit the scene, that's when the OS became a major selling point for phones?

And I agree that Windows Phone is rock-solid. My girlfriend has an HTC Radar Windows Phone and she loves it. It's stable, rarely crashes, and its apps seem optimized well. I can't say the same for my iPod Touch. I've been having constant app crashes since I updated to iOS 6 (Safari crashes often when I write comments on this site).

[nickmitch]

There was Windows Mobile in the pre-iOS/Andriod days.
And also Black Berries, but I don't think the OS was a selling point.

[Ceric]

Yeah,

Windows Mobile and Black Berries are both very capable and Windows Mobile ahead of its time on the wrong track.

Back to Symbian was like the engine of your car.  Only enthusiasts cared but, to everyone else it was just old reliable.

[Brandogg]

Nokia can support Symbian all they want, but it's sitting at 1% market share, which technically is still a lot of devices, I suppose, since there are billions of phones out there.

[Shaymin]

Symbian is a phone OS.  It was not designed to be a Smartphone OS.  It was a different time when it was made.

It was more of a smartPHONE OS rather than a SMARTphone OS. It's largely designed to work with a standard phone keypad.

I still have my N95 for a backup phone, too. Better battery life than anything you'll find nowadays, and a sweet camera.

[TJ Spyke]

Nokia can support Symbian all they want, but it's sitting at 1% market share, which technically is still a lot of devices, I suppose, since there are billions of phones out there.

It's at 2.3%, which indeed is a lot.