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The sun is setting on Symbian. On the day the Nokia Lumia 925 hits shops, reports say Nokia is finally ditching the feature phone operating system in the next couple of months, with the Nokia 808 PureView the final Symbian phone.
The Financial Times reports that Nokia is ending delivery of Symbian phones this summer, claiming the Finnish phone-fanciers blame the amount of time it takes to develop Symbian devices.
Nokia has in recent years relied on feature phones to shore up its business after coming late to the smart phone game, not to mention hitching its wagon to Microsoft’s still-fledgling Windows Phone platform. Although Nokia hasn’t confirmed the timing, the 808 PureView was officially confirmed earlier this year to be the final Symbian phone from Nokia.
In recent years, the inclusion of Internet connection and basic apps on Symbian feature phones saw the gap narrow between Symbian phones and Nokia’s Windows Phone-powered Lumia smart phones. With the likes of the Lumia 520 and excellent 620, Nokia is making affordable smart phones in the hope of appealing to customers on a budget both here and in developing markets — not to mention Nokia’s Asha feature phones, which run Nokia’s own software.
People around the world are certainly losing interest in Symbian: in recent figures, sales of Symbian phones plummeted from more than 10 million in 2012 to just over 1m this year.
Meanwhile Windows Phone is growing, overtaking BlackBerry to slide into third place in the phone charts, behind the iPhone and all-conquering Android.
Is Nokia right to send Symbian to the glue factory, or is there life in this old nag yet? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook wall.
