It was only a matter of time: Android overtakes Symbian as most used mobile OS.

Hello MNB readers!

Our friends over at AllAboutSymbian have an excellent write-up about the current user base counts for Blackberry, iOS, Android and Symbian (abbreviated B.i.A.S lol, which AAS does NOT have).

I always figured it would just be a matter of time before this happened. The more devices sold, the more users and no one can deny the success of Android and iOS.

What do you guys and gals think Nokia should have done differently to keep the top spot? WHEN do you think Nokia should have done it? Let’s be realistic, Symbian in it’s prior to Feb. 11 strategy could NOT stop the Android onslaught so all the “TURNZ BAQ TO SYMBIAN NOWZZZZZ!!!!” and “Say No to Windows!!!” would not prevent Symbian from losing the top spot.

I’ll start it off: To me, for Symbian to have remained the #1 OS, most used, several things would have had to happen:

In no particular order…

1. Should have had Wider OEM/Carrier support:

Android is successful in part due to its availability by many different manufacturers at basically little to no cost to the OEM. Nokia was going it almost SOLO with Symbian. The few OEMs that supported Symbian (SonyE, Samsung) left the licensed structure of Symbian for a free/smaller fee based structure of Android. Carriers in certain countries never bought in to Symbian, and when they did, the chose the WORST Symbian devices (5230 Nuron when much butter 5th Ed devices were out) and then barely promoted them anyway. Nokia should have NOT took the “If we build it, they will come” attitude and instead should have said “Let’s build it and tell them they NEED it, take it to them!”

2. Should have had Constant Symbian OS and Hardware updates:

Love it or hate it, Android is also where it is due to the constant, sometimes too soon, OS and hardware revisions. Techies, including myself, like the cores, the Super Amoled+HDs, and all the other bells and whistles. Sure, it is trivial as to WHAT is needed and not needed but no one can deny that OEMs have used Android as the vehicle and mobile tech has improved by leaps and bounds.

Meanwhile, where has Symbian gotten the mobile world to, technology wise? No seriously, HONESTLY think about it. Erase Android from the face of the universe. Never happened. Currently, with the exception of Apple, tech would have only evolved to 640×480, 512MB Ram and single core. If Nokia has not done massively better WITH COMPETITION, I don’t think they would have WITHOUT competition. Nokia dropped the ball through the floor by changing its stance on GPUs during the N95/82/E90 era….

I could go on and on but the Meat and Potatoes are over at AAS’ so head right over and have a look.

Thanks to dss for the tip!

Source: AAS

The above Chart is a Copyright of Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 26 April 2012

Category: Nokia