Elop in China, Symbian support until at least 2016!
Earlier today, Nokia Conversations released a video of Stephen Elop, the President and CEO of Nokia, during his visit to china. He talks to Nokia Conversation China about several things including making Beijing a “global innovation hub” (currently global R&D hub for S30 and S40) and more importantly that Nokia will continue to support Symbian till “at least” 2016. This sounds to me like Nokia have not completely given up on Symbian, which was my hope, and although a lot of you might disagree, I think there is still a lot of potential in the platform, especially with the coming Anna (PR2.0) and Belle (PR3.0) updates.
To get the most out of it, I recommend you check out the video, so enjoy:
Category: Nokia
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Blogger, and Moderator for "MyNokiaBlog.com" by Jay Montano. I write help guides and review on my own site: JustGuides.net I work full time but in my spare time I also repair phones, and other electronics. Find me on Twitter: @llaaddSubscribe
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Sites That Link to this Post
- Stephen Elop : le support de Symbian sera assuré jusqu’en 2016 | May 27, 2011
- Five must-have apps for your Nokia smartphone | Firstpost | September 20, 2011
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Symbian has better chances in markets like china. Thats why he tells them, not us how long it will continue to be supported
Disagree. It’s a global statement and will obviously be repeated around the world, and taken as applying everywhere.
Sure, but there won’t be much Nokia involvement after 2011, so after all it doesn’t matter what Elop says about how long the support will last. It depends on Accenture and what their dumping wage slaves make out of it
Accenture has been involved in Symbian development over the past years already. Many Dev Teams around Symbian already consist of a majority of Accenture employees. And in Finland Accenture isn’t even rated as bad as maybe in India. But the question is how management will execute plans. The developers remain the same, as will their skills or unskills
So it will be as slow and bad as before, just without any real influence by Nokia. Great…
Not at all. You’re just determined to put a negative spin on it for some reason. Nokia are afterall still in control of Symbian development, even if it has been spun out of the company proper.
they wouldn’t outsource it if they still care about Symbian and its support. The only reason Elop is talking about the support now is that he knows that Nokia still has nothing else to sell, especially on the Chinese market. All they need to do know is to let people believe that they continue to support Symbian to get them to buy more Symbian phones now. So it doesn’t matter if they will keep their promises or how they will do that, cause until then, they hope to be able to make enough money with WP devices and won’t have to care about the fools who believed their Symbian support tales
What fool would be in buying a Symbian phone if it met your requirements? At least they’re pretty cheap and work quite nicely. I think it’d be fool to pay more for unnecessary features and especially for a Brand and ego boost.
Plus you can get Angry Birds and Spotify for them. What else do you need? I mean really need? Okay, I’d like to have a qwerty keyboard and an SSH-client and I bet both of them are available for Nokia Symbian phones.
If you’re not a total nutcase tech addict, a typical Symbian phone will serve you well for a half of a decade to the future. If you are, I’m sorry.
Concentrate on your needs guys. Do not believe the hype.
Wrong, the developers ain’t slow, it was the layers of nokia’s management. That is still involved in the decisionmaking process. But not with as many layers, so it might speed up things a little, but I don’t think noticeable.
I think 2016 is a decent enough time as well for WP7 to either gain commercial success or failiure. I think this long tail is in part acknowledgement of the risk they are taking. If Wp7 works out, great, if not, then if the platform isn’t completely burned they have an exit strategy with Symbian, or perhaps a “future disruption”.
If they are doing support, updates and apps for Symbian until 2016, this probably also means devices until at least 2014.
Symbian won’t be an exit strategy since they already outsource it this year. Maybe Nokia just made a contract with Accenture saying something like “support it at least till 2016″. No one knows how this support is really going to look like. Nokia won’t be involved that much anymore
That nokia outsourced symbian doesn’t mean they still don’t own it. They can can out source it and even buy up the entire Accenture in the twinkle of an eye. What they acheived by the outsourcing was simplifying the chain of command overseeing symbian.
you took the words right out of my mouth, a lot of people don’t understand that this is just a way to re-organise the company and get them selves together, Nokia is not afraid to ask for help if they need it, just shows strength in the company.
> Nokia have not completely given up on Symbian, which was my hope, and although a lot of you might disagree, I think there is still a lot of potential in the platform
No, I agree with you 1000% mate. There is an absolute HUGE pile of potential in Symbian. PR 2.0 and 3.0 ->**ARE**<- coming this year ALONE. That leaves 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 AT LEAST, for more updates potentially. Elop promised full support, I cannot believe that will not mean some more updates. And in any case, if we have PR 2.0 and 3.0, quite frankly I don't see why we'd even need any more updates so I will be totally happy even if PR 3.0 was the last (which I doubt).
I'd love to know how any Nokia Windows Phone will in any way replace any Nokia Symbian phone given this news. Windows Phone is simply not up to the job of beating Symbian – i.e. making people drop their Symbian phones and take up WinPho. ZERO chance. Esp. given the improvements of PR 2.0 and 3.0.
What WinPho fans will have to accept is that Nokia's Windows Phones will simply offer an alternative – one with a DIFFERENT but NOT better user experience (i.e. some prefer it, some don't, just like with any other handset on the market), with much less features, much more locked down media consumption etc, and different hardware (The N8's hardware is almost perfect as far as I can see, so given the downgrade WinPho represents I can't see any hardware improvements on WinPho phones being enough to make people switch from Symbian). If you love WinPho and hate Symbian that's fine I respect that, but it is NOT an inevitable successor to Symbian any more, merely an alternative in the same way any other phone on the market is right now.
Furthermore, this news shows Nokia ARE hedging their bets (of course they won't say so, it would undermine the whole MS deal). This gives them several years to see how their (insane) WinPho move plays out, and gear up for the next "future disruption" allowing a clear run from Symbian into that future (MeeGo? Or whatever?) should their WinPho efforts fail (as I predict they will, but of course we don't know!).
I would drop my Symbian powered N8 for a WP equivalent (camera just as good) when it arrives.
So that ZERO chance as you so nicely put it should then be at least 0.00001%
Also love how you always rave about facts yet do claim that PR2 and 3 are coming this year. That’s not a fact. If PR2 takes as long as it did already how the heck are the going to revamp the UI in a smaller time frame?
Ow, and WP won’t fail.
Don’t care if it will fail. It shall evolve among Symbian and the others. That’s perfectly fine, as long as it doesn’t devolve Symbian.
PR2.0 and 3.0 are done by different teams
Don’t get the false impression that the current AVKON based Teams are responcible for the PR3.0 stuff and can’t work on it while working for PR2.0
There is some intersection work (sry for my english) between the teams but PR2.0 doesn’t postpone PR3.0.
If PR3.0 doesn’t make it this year or is released only with the new Symbian phones announced, it is solely a marketing decision.
> I would drop my Symbian powered N8 for a WP
Sure thing. I’m sure some would join you. It’s called personal choice and freedom and it’s one of life’s great things (if you live in a country that allows it as most of us do).
> That’s not a fact.
Correct. Not until it’s actually arrived this year does it become fact. But I offered it as a prediction that I personally am certain of based on various statements and rumours.
> WP won’t fail
Another opinion, the opposite to mine. Maybe you will be right, but it is true that history favours my opinion on this – i.e. not only have MS never succeeded significantly with any of their mobile efforts (either technically, design-wise, or in terms of sales or market share) but focussing on Windows Phone (and ignoring Windows Mobile) the situation is even worse – sales are TERRIBLE (esp. in relation to marketing dollars spent) and the platform is still half-skeletal, missing various features that consumers expect nowadays (and even more features are missing from a Symbian owners perspective if Nokia expects them to transition). Not to mention a clear image problem. So…not looking at all great. They might turn things around and I will be impressed if they (Nok + MS) do!
First off, It’s not surprising you would post here. It’s even less surprising that once again, you have to turn this into a “Symbian is better than…” thread.
Secondly, Nokia HAS NOT released THEIR Windows Phone yet. It has yet to be determined what this phone’s user experience will be like. You also seem to think user experience is nothing more than visuals and transitions (this is UI). However, whether or not or how easily it can perform a certain task is what matters. Speaking for myself (and myself only, but I’m know others feel the same), Symbian provided a horrendous user experience in SOME areas. For you to proclaim that it definitely won’t be better than Symbian is just ignorant.
Thirdly, PLENTY of people have already expressed interest in picking up Nokia’s Windows phone. So this “undermines” your statement of having ZERO chance of this happening. And for what it’s worth, just so you don’t mistake me for a WinPho fanboy (again), I WILL NOT be picking up Nokia’s Windows Phone until there are plenty of reviews and people have expressed their likes/dislikes. I’ve got something else that can/will hold me over until then, and it just plain WORKS (here’s a hint: It’s definitely NOT a Symbian).
Finally, I want to point out that just because support will be until 2016, it doesn’t necessarily mean the N8 will get all of these updates. Newer devices will more likely than not come out and will have Symbian^3 updates/features that the N8 might or might not get. I find it rather funny how you progressed from “the N8 is perfect as is and needs no updates whatsoever” to “the N8 will be perfect once we have PR 2.0 and PR 3.0.”
They shouldn’t have given a deadline in the first place. Actually, they shouldn’t have said Symbian would be phased out. It doesn’t actually matter whether it IS or it is NOT getting phased out: what matters is what your audience think.
If developers think the platform is NOT going to be “phased out” in benefit of another platform (WP7), they will continue supporting Symbian. Now, if you tell everyone “WE WILL PHASE OUT THIS PLATFORM IN BENEFIT OF WP7″, who is going to develop for Symbian? DON’T SAY anything, just say “We’ll develop WP7, it may be our primary smartphone OS, Symbian is staying along too, and we will still release one or two MeeGo/Harmattan devices”.
People are complicated. That’s why there are many people studying people comportment and behavior, psychology etc. If someone (specially the average Joe) hears from someone else that somehow some company is going to stop support for a platform, they will not search to see if this is true, they will just take it as a fact. And worse: this is not only for the average Joe, there are friends of mine in my own college class that take also take Computer Science course and still, these very friends also take most of what they hear/see/read anywhere as facts without even trying to evaluate whether it’s true or not.
One of them came to me saying “hey, did you see the news? Microsoft is buying Nokia! Nokia will be part of Microsoft soon, just like Skype”. He actively tried to convince me of that, even after I told him it was not true (at least that’s what Nokia rep said on Twitter), just because he read it online somewhere. He didn’t say “the mobile division will be sold”, however. He said NOKIA would be bought by Microsoft. So, worse than rumors is what is kept into people’s minds.
If people hear “Symbian is bad” without even knowing about it, they’ll be defensive about Symbian without ever seeing it.
Now, Elop has extended the “Symbian support date” to “at least 2016″. But that’s not what people will be saying. People will say “ohai, Symbian is dead, it’s already got an expiration date in 2016, well I herd it wus shitz any way so lets getback to our androidz and iOSes”
Engadget will be saying “Symbian regret inside”, “Symbian as your zombie OS”, and “owning a phone like this will certainly have an effect on your social life, we’re just not so sure it’ll be a positive one.”
American blogs will be saying “Symbian is dead, it haz no appz”
And unaware people happening to read all that will take it “uh it haz this newz in many blogs n’sites, so must be true, Im not checking it anywayz”.
Nokia blogs and other sensible blogs that actually know what is going on will be telling the new as it is (most likely), and try to explain the average joe that the news he had read somewhere else is false, but then, as the meme says, “what has been seen, cannot be unseen.” Once crap is done, you can’t just undo it. I think these announcements were provoked by Microsoft, who had a lot to benefit from them.
Take too long and you’re prone to be forgotten and lose a lot, but rush too much and you’re prone to say something that shouldn’t be said and could affect the company a lot. Nokia seems to be mastering both: they rushed too much in getting a new CEO, got Elop. Rushed too much to make the deal with Microsoft, and buried Symbian alive. And to top it all, they’re taking too long to release new things, which include, but are not limited to, new software updates and new phones.
AWESOME post! Spot on!
Some of the latest comments here really are quality ones again
Some of Ninja’s/Smith’s too, if they don’t complain about fanboyism
Factually he’s right in my opinion most of the time, even though if it seems hard for him to communicate it with the necessary communicative prevailing influence…
Argh my english sucks…
Thank you. Some people just don’t like hearing the truth about Symbian and Windows Phone I guess. That said I agree with some of the comments against the way I put things across, I could do that better sometimes
Any chance of getting in personal contact for a little chat?
check my link for that
Cheers
Yeah you’ve got a point to an extent. But it’s not all like that. Symbian’s still the top seller despite it being allegedly dead and all the rest. And the N8 speaks for itself really.
If we’re giving personal testimonies, I’ll say that every iPhone and Android owner I’ve shown my N8 to (between 5 and 10 I reckon) is VERY impressed with it. The camera + HDMI out + Nokia BigScreen generally does the trick in wowing them completely
It’s not so much the blogs that are worrying, it’s the major traditional news outlets that are changing there tune.
A lot of the papers etc. are starting to write more and more about the mobile industry. Unfortunatly a lot of those papers and news outlets have the iPhone model as the perfect one and measure everything by it.
The blogs aren’t the problem, those aren’t read by the majority of customers. Traditional news outlets are, with them starting to sing the same kind of tune that iPhone is great and Nokia (even that is said) is past it, that’s the time when a writer for a blog needs to rethink what he or she types.
Maybe not so much this particular blog, which is driven out of love for Nokia and nothing else. But the bigger ones like Engadget etc. should be far more journalistic about their writing.
I kinda knew something like this would happen since they started using the “Anna” naming convention for update releases. i mean, why starting with letter A, and then move on to B with Belle if they don’t intend to go to C, D, E, F and so on. This is great news.
I’ll be looking forward to Symbian Zelda.
Microsoft scrapped thier old OS and started fresh with WP7, I can’t see why Nokia/accenture wouldn’t.
???
It has dawned on me that Mr. Elop seems to be a person who speaks first and thinks later.
Now he tries to repair the damage he caused Nokia in February, a quarter of mobile phone sales later, he goes out with this.
With his stupid speech in February, he has caused Nokia millions in reduced sales, billions in lost income and perhaps Nokia’s very own mobile platform Symbian irreparable harm.
I think that Nokia will use Symbian^3 a long time, but in simpler hardware than Windows phones. Hope not Elop has ruined Symbian now.
Well said.
Billions lost in income and millions of sales lost is going short. There is far more to it than that.
While the February announcement has had it’s impact, there is also the small device portfolio Nokia has. Or at least the absence of differentiating factors in their portfolio.
Well said that Symbian will continue in lesser hardware. That’s exactly what I think. With WP being harder to push down that initially thought there is something needed to fill the mid-end. Perfect for Symbian to do that.
And in the future (say 5 years) Symbian will be the S40.
Look at it this way… Elop and friends planned the announcement and its outcome.
It’s now about killing and destroying everything standing in the way of WP7′s supposedly huge commercial success.
i just hope that nokia will release symbian phone with improved hardware like additional in processor, ram etc… Don’t get me wrong with this, im not saying that symbian needs a bigger cpu or ram to function correctly, but the reason i want for hardware upgrade is for further development, for further flexibility…
and since other mobile manufacturers are now heading to quad cores and leaving dual cores, that would mean i think a perfect hardware for symbian and its even too much for symbian and 1-2gig of ram… again just for further development and flexibility coz we don’t know with those symbian could be a monster…
btw i want those new developments in the os’s to be just an update for S^3 devices… So everyone can enjoy it…
Ooohhh… I must be dreamin’, but i hope tomorrow this will not be just a dream… I really like symbian, but for now just hack your symbian and install free apps, games and good mods…
The China Edition sounds awfully like the English edition no?
every body talking about give up symbian and windows is cool
every body forgot symbian is allready succesfull in many phones and windows 6.5 has fail
yes symbian has little down side lately but still has improvements
will windows 7 and mango survive??is their last chance so keep trying windows
I’d rather Sym and Meego than WP. Why NOkia didn’t use more meego phones as thier smartphone instead of WP
Why do i get the feeling ELOPE is just creating this statement to cover his ass….
If the updates are published as slowly as now, then they will have no problem extending their support till 2016, because then we maybe see Symbian “belle” being released /s
this just proves to elop nokia is nothing with out symbian