Nokia Preps Final Shipment of Symbian Handsets, Officially All-In with Windows Phone
Goodbye, Symbian, and thanks for the pie. That's the message Nokia is sending to the once popular mobile operating system as its preps one final shipment of Symbian smartphones this summer before investing its efforts entirely into its relationship with Microsoft and the Windows Phone platform. It's a bit of a bittersweet parting.
On one hand, Symbian for a long while was the smartphone platform to beat in terms of market share, sitting at top up through late 2010. By then, Android and iOS were well on their way to becoming the mobile platforms to beat, and today the two rival OSes account for 9 out of every 10 smartphones sold.
Meanwhile, Nokia sold a measly 500,000 Symbian handsets in the first quarter of 2013, according to a Financial Times report. During the same period, Windows-based Lumia phone sales totaled 5.6 million units.
Interest in Symbian is at an all-time low, and it's showing no signs of a recovery. In addition, Nokia labors more intensively to put out a Symbian device, noting that "It took 22 months to get a Symbian phone out the door. With Windows Phone, it is less than a year." Nokia says it spends less time tinkering with underlying code on Windows Phone devices, making the decision to abandon Symbian a relatively easy one.
On one hand, Symbian for a long while was the smartphone platform to beat in terms of market share, sitting at top up through late 2010. By then, Android and iOS were well on their way to becoming the mobile platforms to beat, and today the two rival OSes account for 9 out of every 10 smartphones sold.
Meanwhile, Nokia sold a measly 500,000 Symbian handsets in the first quarter of 2013, according to a Financial Times report. During the same period, Windows-based Lumia phone sales totaled 5.6 million units.
Interest in Symbian is at an all-time low, and it's showing no signs of a recovery. In addition, Nokia labors more intensively to put out a Symbian device, noting that "It took 22 months to get a Symbian phone out the door. With Windows Phone, it is less than a year." Nokia says it spends less time tinkering with underlying code on Windows Phone devices, making the decision to abandon Symbian a relatively easy one.
