Over half a billion Symbian phones sold?
Following the stats of S40 reaching 1.5 BILLION, Steve Litchfield from AAS got to thinking, how much Symbian phones have been sold to date? This was passed last Autumn apparently. Whilst this isn’t just Nokia, I would have thought that since Nokia does make up a significant bulk of Symbian, it makes the other sellers relatively negligible.
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/14132_15_billion_Series_40_phones_pl.php
Another question Steve asks is how many are in use. Good question, that’s of most importance too, to see how many folks are using their Symbian handsets. Wasn’t there a report already that showed Symbian was top (was that based on mobile internet use? Via browser?). Steve’s estimations from 2006 to 2011 suggest around 400 Million still in use.
I wonder how many sales are to repeat customers? We know a lot of iOS sales turn out to be folks upgrading. I wonder how much of that occured/occurs with Symbian. I know at least for the fans of Nokia out there, you might each be able to open your own mini museum with your collection, but we aren’t the majority base user.
Random Sunday morning rant…
Whilst user base is good, something that plagues all these Symbian users is fragmentation. They aren’t all capable of running even 1 app across all platforms and since development was hard, it made it difficult for developers to jump on the platform. That’s why in 2008, we saw some pretty great looking iOS apps compared to what we had even a year later on the N97. (Fragmentation of course also caused Symbian development to be much slower than necessary, having to account for the plethora of variants and focusing more on reducing bugs as opposed to streamlinling and polishing features)
The answer eventually was to get Qt on board but even that didn’t really see the apps flow in prior to Feb 11. Who knows if it could have been in a different situation or if devs really just dismissed (and wrongly) the Symbian platform. I understand not liking S^3/Anna in UI terms compared to the other Mobile UIs, and that Belle was much too far away. It’s so much better on Belle, more consistent, more up to date and what we should have expected Nokia to deliver in 2009, 2010, not mid 2011 and not appearing as updates until Feb 2012.
Is Symbian or Qt dead? Of course not. If there are aspiring developers out there, make a good enough app and there’s a huge userbase to go and install your app. Lots of money to be made still. We might not be able to get the big names but they shouldn’t be the only source of content from Nokia Store.
Nokia on their own are still able to ship 20 Million Symbian units in the last quarter. And that’s of relatively unremarkable Symbian handsets (they’re good for their intended audience I guess). Imagine if Nokia actually bothered in 2011 and brought us an actual flagship class handset? (Like seriously, no Symbian phone launched in 2011 could have been considered a flagship…and since Nokia notoriously takes years to develop a phone, was this what they had planned for 2011 anyway? A bunch of mediocres? I think some people deserve a slap if that’s the case).
Symbian won’t be alone to pick up on Qt. Think of the power Nokia has to ship S40 devices. Realise how much power they already have with 1GHz. Nearly 100M was sold last quarter. Imagine if through Meltemi, S40 as we know it with Swipe and Qt transitioned to a smartphone? That would be of an utmost disruption, no? 37M Apple smartphones is great in one quarter – they beat the 28M record of Nokia, good job. But 120M+ in one quarter, with just smartphones? There’s a strong opportunity for Nokia to do that, but taking opportunities and Nokia doesn’t go hand in hand. They seem to like to give away advantage, take time so that good ideas are implemented by others, just plain fails at execution. You know the deal if you’ve been following Nokia for a while. Even now with WP, a lot of the things that could have been achieved aren’t. It’s like since the N95 they’ve just decided to be mediocre as a whole. Glimpses of brilliance but any time it’s there, “let’s shut it down, we don’t want to make it too hard for the competition”.
Nokia isn’t just transitioning from to different OSes, they’re changing internally too. One of the things we should hopefully be seeing is quicker reaction times to things happening in the market (the quick production of Lumias as an example and their quick launch) but hopefully Nokia won’t just be reacting any more, but causing disruptions. You would have thought that after a January launch, Nokia would get those phones out in February not March. It’s still good by Nokia standards though but not good enough as we know Nokia’s standards are turning out to be subpar.
Sorry for the moan.
Source: allaboutsymbian.com
Thanks Yasu for the tip.
Nokia N8 successor rumuored
specifications: don’t know how much it is true…
-code name “OM” considered very lucky
name in hinduism.
-official name N10
- Carla OS, polycarbonate body , slim as N8
-14MP camera with xenon & led flash
(finally nokia heard customer’s choice)
-3.7 multi touch capactive screen ( like
N9)
-resolution same as N9 -32GB inbuilt memory (128GB
expandable)
-1.5 GHz CPU (ARM), BCM 2835 GPU (7
times powerful than N8)
1GB RAM (only for this carla OS mobile)
CAMERA FEATURES: -1/1.25 Size of camera sensor (wow)
-full 1080p video@30fps and
720p@60fps
-variable aperture, camera shutter, next
gen. CARL ZEISS LENS,
-5x optical zoom and even in video (incredible)
-quite heavy settings to adjust acc. to
your choice just like in semi DSLR
cameras
-1500mah li-pol battery
LAUNCHING DATE- JULY/AUGUST This year
Source?
in my dreams
Wishful thinking.[1]
I find them real even if it is just a dream
+1
He has posted the same 3 comments in about half a dozen pages. Ignore it. Like, N10? Nokia has stated no more Nseries. Only keywords and numbers e.g. Lumia 900 or Asha 303
Also, only a 14mp camera? Please, 16+ Has been hinted at several times
+1
exactly, like some hinted, the camera sensor will be way over 16MP Even 48MP were rumored.
The pictures of future nokia phones back in march of last year show a 15mp. I saved the pictures, so 16 could be coming. Wpcentral reports a dutch site showing a 910 and 12.1mp camera. Of course that could be the competition site trying to keep people away from the true 900.
wasnt it 13mpx either way MPX isn’t a concern sensor size and optics are all im concerned with
I wish!
Not true. The resolution will be nHD, same as most symbian 3 phones on the market today
Pleas post your source on this kind of information, because we only know Nokia Carla and N8 successor from tipster dsmobile and that is all, show me real leaked info of this things and then i will belive you.
Sadly there will be no real n8 successor. Whatever comes out as a successor is a gimped version of what it could have been. Thanks flop.
BCM 2835 is a dual core GPU
which will make N10 upgradable to
Donna …
Carla will bring only eye catching
interface most probably like Meego
Harmattan
Donna will be like ICS 4.0
Donna devices will start shipping in Feb
2013..
Donna will be showcased in Nokia
World in 2012 in Oct.. means a very
heavy update of Symbian..
“Ema” may be the last update of
Symbian
Pff if it went MeeGo on Carla why regress to ICS ?
What is happening to ST-Ericsson U8500? Will it be used in Symbian or Windows Phone or any phones? You said GPU is BCM but what is the CPU, is it Cortex?
BCM2835 has a 700MHz ARM11 processor.
Next generation GPU in symbian
phones may be BCM 2835.. It is 2 times
powerful than Tegra 2 and iphones 4S’s
GPU…It is cheaper thats why Nokia can
use it in Carla symbian phones to make
profits..
And stop giving shits!
In your dreams
Nokia had a great chance to continue their leadership position with Symbian, if they weren’t asleep at the wheel. S60v5 was awful, it scared people away at the wrong time, and they also messed up the N97 during the same time.. just bad timing all together. If they had Belle out in early 2010 things would be much different today. IF.. whatever..
Couldn’t agree more on S60, since my 6700 Slide is running on that. Makes even a simple task of adjusting volume troublesome as an example, not to mention random lags and freezes. Got used to it, but at the same time it can be irritating at times. Wouldn’t mind migrating to a non-Symbian phone, except Android. :p
All this rumors about the N8 successor is wrong!
I am very sure! The N8 sucessor will be capable to run battlefield 3 better than PC!
=D
SEE THE GPU 2835 specifications on broadcom official website..it is compatible with ARM architecture which symbian uses..
I bet with all of you that CARLA DEVICES will be shipped with this powerful and cost efficient GPU..
There is difference between knowing and believing. I believe we’re going to see a MP monster with a dual core CPU, BUT i don’t KNOW it. As long as you haven’t got insider Info, stop claiming to know something.
@amoshydra-BCM 2835 GPU can run it easily without any lag..
like
Quake Wars
Dragon Age 2
Wolfenstein MP
Specifications:
The BCM2835 is a cost-optimized, full
HD, multimedia applications processor
for advanced mobile and embedded
applications that require the highest
levels of multimedia performance.
Designed and optimized for power efficiency, BCM2835 uses Broadcom’s VideoCore® IV technology to enable applications in media playback,
imaging, camcorder, streaming media,
graphics and 3D gaming.
Low Power ARM1176JZ-F Applications
Processor Dual Core VideoCore IV® Multimedia Co- Processor 1080p30 Full HD HP H.264 Video
Encode/Decode
Advanced Image Sensor Pipeline (ISP)
for up to 20-megapixel cameras
operating at up to 220 megapixels per
second
Low power, high performance OpenGL
ES® 1.1/2.1 VideoCore GPU. 1 Gigapixel per second fill rate. High performance display outputs.
Simultaneous high resolution LCD and
HDMI with HDCP at 1080p60
Hey He! I have no idea what you just said but Im looking for a Windows All in one touch computer. Which one should I buy?
Trust me, you don’t want his advice on buying anything. Head over to somewhere like AnandTech and ask there.
mostly it will be nokia 701 specs with a 12mp camera,
Also i dont think there will be any carla device,why on earth they should waste money on a dead platform.
mostly it will be nokia 701 specs with a 12mp camera,
Also i dont think there will be any donna device,why on earth they should waste money on a dead platform.
Pocketnow reports Trojans are in force in the Android Marketplace, as per Norton. Careful Android users, it seems not only google IS WATCHING but others as well. Thats why I like the more closed systemof windows. Apple security is now rated less than Microsoft as per wired.
Not very surprising. Even with the death sentence, Symbian still retained most of its fans due to the features present on the device. Although Nokia, or shall I say Elop, obviously delayed updates to the platform, it’s still pretty much undeniable that the OS is still knocking Fagdroid ang fagOS at some point or another.
“Nokia won’t just be reacting any more, but causing disruptions.”
With the utmost respect for all people wishing the best for nokia and the wp partnership. But in all honesty I don’t think that is even possible.
I mean if nokia does not control the hardware range it can use in its phones.
Nor can/wants it have truly exclusive Software features in wp.
I cant see that happening…
MIcrosoft and WP might in the future have disruptive technologies, but they will not be Nokias exclusive.
Cheers and peace.
Spot on. The only disruptions Nokia makes will be curiously coincident with Microsoft software releases. And even then, we’d have to see novel technology to make it a disruption. So far it has just been catching up… Or trying to, at any rate.
Jay you finally where i was coming from all this time now…….this is what elop is doing to it stripping it from what it once created and using something else from normal guys
The Android graph probably under represents the numberof Android handsets sold to date. At the end of Q4, Google indicated that some 250 million Android handsets were currently in use. The number sold since inception is obviously higher than that. Probably closer to 300 million, and likely to surpass Symbian next year.