Nokia Sticks With Symbian, Meego

[george]

Nokia sticks with Symbian, MeeGo

By Asina Pornwasin

The Nation

Nokia has announced that it will focus on Symbian and MeeGo as its key platforms to compete with its key rivals, namely the Android and iPhone smart phones.

In a Twitter interview yesterday, Nokia executive vice president and general manager Niklas Savander (@ NiklasatNokia) said that though Nokia had a 38-per-cent market share, it would still need to compete with Android and iPhone.

"We believe our platforms enable us to continue to add value for consumers," Savander said, adding that Symbian enhanced with Qt continued to be Nokia's major smart-phone platform. Qt is a cross-platform application and UI (user interface) framework that allows developers to write Web-enabled applications and deploy them across desktop, mobile and embedded operating systems without rewriting the source code.

Developers can package Qt apps using the Smart Installer and deploy it via the Ovi Store. With Qt, Symbian will also continue to evolve.

"Both Symbian and MeeGo are open-source and welcome anyone to develop on these. Our development environments are Qt/Qt-Quick, Java and HTML," Savander said.

"My favourite in the current line-up is the Nokia N8. Mine is lime-green, and I love it."

However, the Nokia S40 continues to be the best platform to offer access to mobility solutions for emerging markets.

"We have announced four series - Nokia N8, C7, C6 and E7. We think the E7 will have a much broader appeal. Battery performance is a key criterion for us. The new Symbian products are significantly more battery-efficient," Savander said.

Nokia will encourage users to stick with its smart phone and enjoy applications through the Ovi Store by offering them the ease of discovery, great experience, marketing and operator billing, he said.

"This [Twitter] is a new way of having a dialogue. We will continue to engage and have conversations like this in the future," Savander said, concluding the interview.

The mobile-device business is evolving rapidly towards a lush ecosystem comprising operators, media, developers, content providers, games publishers, manufacturers, Internet service companies and many, many more. In Southeast Asia alone, smart phones will grow by 26 per cent at a compound annual rate from 2009 to 2014, according to International Data Corporation.

-- The Nation 2010-10-27

[Crushdepth]

Nokia is doomed. I am stunned that they still think Symbian is competitive. The last dinosaur roaming the earth.

[RIJoe]

I'm shocked that they're partnering with a sex toy...oops that would be Sybian not Symbian...my bad. What a difference one letter makes.

[Chicog]

I was shown the N8 today. What a quantum leap compared to Android or iOS.... backwards leap that is.

They've got no chance if they don't either rush Meego or start making Android phones.

[raro]

It is completely beyond me why they do not go Android. They make very solid hardware but the OS was revolutionary 10 years ago. That's a long time in computing.

BTW...did anybody notice that mobile windows 7 has hit the market?