Symbian has had a troubled year and one which could signal the beginning of the end for a platform which never fulfilled its potential. The smartphone market has changed greatly in the past two years, but before that there was time for Nokia to jump ahead of the competition in more ways than just sales figures. Despite the fact that Nokia is still king of the hill when it comes to smartphone sales figures, it is apparent that it is near the bottom of the pile in terms of software potential. Maemo5 may be the file nail in Symbian coffin, but let’s concentrate on Symbian for this article.

There has never been an exhaustive range of Symbian apps and games and this is the main reason why I have not stayed with the platform. It is ironic that the Nokia E71 (possibly the best smartphone ever made) is let down by the OS and even newer phones like the N97, which has grown into an excellent solution, still have the same old restrictions onboard which are far too obvious to the consumer who will naturally compare with Android phones and the iPhone. The current issues with third party Symbian apps are summed up nicely here and I for one cannot see this turning round any time soon.

Personally, I believe that the focus from Nokia has been wrong right from the very start. Born out of EPOC (Psion), the platform failed to meet the standards consumers expected all those years ago and if you look at any Symbian device throughout the timeline, they are far too similar software wise. Gaming has been poor, as has been evidenced by the N-GAGE fiasco, and it is true that the vast majority of Symbian owners will never download a third party app. However, Nokia should not use this as an excuse for not even making them aware that they could do so. Ovi appeared far too late and by all accounts has not got off to a good start, and even the consumer targeted Comes with Music service has failed to do much business with the buying public. It seems that everywhere Nokia turns, failure waits at the moment.

The hardware has at times been stunning, but with so many similar devices being released all of the time it is easy to see that Nokia is a hardware company and that software comes a poor second. The N95 was a revelation for consumers, the E71 a revelation for business people and…. well, that’s all I can think of at the moment. The rest have been run of the mill efforts which mimic too much of the functionality from previous models and so we end up with a scattered catalogue of devices which fail to inspire those who now expect more.

Two issues stand out for me above all others; Nokia is a follower who has failed to see what may be coming round the corner and despite having the capacity to change the world, still doesn’t seem to want to. Nokia is good at playing it safe in a world where safe is doomed to failure. The second issue is the focus of this article- Symbian is a good phone OS which does what most people need, but it is simply not right for the mobile phone market in 2009. I hate to say it, but Symbian OS needs to follow UIQ into the realms of smartphone history. Maybe then Nokia will start concentrating on software as much as hardware and we will see some innovation return.

Some hope may be around the corner- check out this concept UI video below from SEE 2009.