Focus on Mobile Platforms: Symbian

Introduced: 1998

History:  Symbian was formed in 1998 by Psion, Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson and was derived from the EPOC operating system used in the Psion handheld PDAs. It never took the Psion philosophy to heart though and to this day not one Symbian powered smartphone bears much of a resemblance to the Psion platform.

Symbian is the only mobile OS which is largely anonymous and just sits in the background powering millions of phones around the world. Because of this it has been said that most Symbian owners do not know that they own a smartphone and that is certainly true and maybe part of the reason for the recent struggles. UIQ was a variant which only ever held a place in the niche market and has now been discontinued, leaving only S60 to carry the Symbian flag.

Nokia has always been the driving force behind Symbian, and now owns it, and has a multitude of Symbian smartphones on the market at every price point. Nokia has seemingly done everything right over the past few years and leads the smartphone market in terms of numbers, but something is still missing which I can’t put my finger on.

Hardware partners: Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson

Notable devices: Nokia 9000, Nokia E71, SE P800

Current Position: Nokia has jumped on the touch screen phenomenon with the 5800 and N97 (S60 5th Edition) and also managed to carve a place in the business market with the E71, but the figures tell a worrying story. Despite still being dominant at 41.2% of the smartphone market, this contrasts with the 45.1% held a year before.

The 5800 has sold very well and more successes are on the horizon, but something needs to change- the OS. Nokia ploughs millions of pounds into Symbian every year, but for many users S60 looks very similar to hold it did a few years ago. The lack of third party software has not helped, and Nokia’s signing process also causes some issues, but somehow Nokia has become a follower in the mobile market. Touch screen devices follow Apple, the N97 is a huge nod to HTC and the E71 is aiming at the BlackBerry market.

Nokia smartphones are reliable, very well made and highly functional, but rarely original.

Likely users: Absolutely anyone.

Potential: Nokia still has a firm grip on the smartphone market, but times are changing quickly and it needs to think big to win. There is a huge user base out there, but it is not a base that feels much allegiance to the platform because Symbian does not bring out much emotion when using it.

It would be crazy to write off a company like Nokia and a platform like Symbian, but I do have some confusion as to exactly where it is heading.