11 February 2011

Symbian not abandoned yet


So today Nokia and Microsoft announced their new ecosystem bringing Nokia's hardware and Microsoft's mobile os to fight iPhone and the android.The announcement has seen mostly a negative reaction from the blogger community mostly saying that Nokia has taken a step towards its doom.What it will become only time can tell.


The company have also announced a complete restructuring and dividing its general mass market feature phone's and smartphone's into two sections.The company plan's to use windows mobile as their primary os and may be their only os in the future.To recap here are the main changes 
  • Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
  • Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone. Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
  • Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
  • Bing would power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
  • Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience
  • Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
  • Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
  • Nokia’s content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.
What does this all mean to us as Symbian users?
Symbian will continue to evolve as promised and new devices will be released for the near future.Nokia will support symbian platform and continue with its services.The qt will be their at the center of this evolution and will drive more apps to the ovi store.
The problem is that symbian seems to be a second hand os to Nokia just using it to get some profits out of it for the investment it made.Neither developers nor users wants to use or support such a platform,causing already serious deficency of apps to intensify.New developers will not come and the existing may very well leave.