90% of phones in the world aren't smartphones. 93% or 94% of phones in the world aren't Symbian. So in your reply mentioning iPhone and Symbian combined, you're focussing on around 6% / 7% of users. What about the vast remainder, exactly?

I know for an absolute fact (as I do it daily) that for example developing and running a mobile website, or to be quite honest a good IVR or SMS app, is cheap as chips. Way cheaper than anything else. It really is. Especially if in the latter cases you get the user to bear the cost (noting that the cheapest premium SMS tariff is 12.5p I think which would be easily bearable for most users and the few pence profit from which would cover all the costs of running the service).

What it does require however is having the intelligence and being bothered to make a good mobile website (/sms/IVR). Most of the stuff is free – e.g. PHP (/Ruby/Perl/Java), WURFL/WALL for live adaptation to any mobile, MySQL for database, Freeswitch or Asterisk for IVR, numerous co's for SMS (Zong.com are great for premium stuff – no cost to developer). Hosting costs a bit, but very little and can be scaled up according to load very easily (try vps.net for example).

Developing a scalable mobile website integrated with SMS and IVR and using the above tools is at least an order of magnitude easier (and also much cheaper and quicker) than learning the iPhone SDK and producing an app for it.

Come on developer community, you've got no excuses.

So I agree there's a heck of a lot of laziness on the part of developers — but it's also a cost issue. For the developer and for the client making the purchasing decision.

So laziness gives way to simple economics

It's typically cheaper to make an iPhone app than a Symbian one. That should hopefully change when it comes to discussing Maemo. But I find it absolutely staggering that with the millions and millions of entirely capable Nokia N95s out there, more companies don't support them.

The sad fact is most companies made a costing decision and opted for iPhone. The market has spoken — and it's said 'no thanks' (broadly speaking) to Nokia/Symbian.

So who's at fault?

Symbian and Nokia. Not the developers, right? They're simply reacting to reality.

I think it's about time though that we refocussed this on USERS. You know guys – users? That dusty vague old concept hidden away on a bookshelf somewhere, buried under a pile of papers, and almost forgotten.

Us lot sit here and bitch about Nokia, and bith about development, and bitch about Apple, and all this blah de blah de blah. And that's fair enough within it's limited little box.

But let me say that Ocado, and Sony Pictures and all the rest a a bunch of f'ing idiots. And I'm not normally prone to such language. And dare I say that developers that *blindly* jump on the iPhone/Android bandwagon (i.e. without even a proper cost/benefit analysis and a clear idea of profits to be made – or some other competitive advantage, and that's without even considering the point I am making right here) are also a bunch of f'ing idiots (hey see all the friends I just made by saying that!).

Why? Because we're a bunch of selfish ******. Yeah, we have to make a living. Blah de blah de blah. There is this faux air of caring about users, which is in fact false. Because if you cared about users, why on earth would you target one of the most minority platforms on the planet? (iPhone). At this point I won't even mention Android because (taking a snapshot right now, as we're doing with Nokia) it's one of the most insignificant and undersold software products in history and trying to find an Android owner is like trying to find a cork floating on an ocean.

No, if you (you being developers, but more to the point you being Sony Pictures, and Ocado and all the rest) REALLY care about users – you will meet them where THEY are at. Not where you are at with your geek-love-fetish for premium high technology.

Many, many, many, many, i.e. almost all, users out there, do NOT have iPhones (and some platform beginning with A whose userbase is so small I've forgotten about it). No. They have, possibly, if you're lucky, mobile web. And they almost guaranteeably have SMS. And they DEFINITELY have voice (shock horror scream faint – voice got mentioned – and by voice I mean REALLY well designed IVR/push button menus).

So developers, with your druggie-like addiction to iPhones and other shiny, touchy things, where exactly, I humbly ask you, are REAL services for REAL users, on the platforms THEY have right NOW?

Where are the apps, en masse, that are fun, interesting and enjoyable, telling me about the latest movies, or allowing me to order my shopping, etc, that work with the mobile web, SMS and voice that almost all REAL users actually have right now? Where?

Yes, sure you can pick out a few sporadic random unusual examples if you try. But by and large they are not there. And why? Because the idiot, deer-caught-in-the-headlights developer industry went off chasing something shiny and exclusive. Why did they do that? I don't know. Geek psychology? Selfishness? Greed? Not enough love or sex in their lives? I dunno.

There is a place for iPhone apps, sure. To try and coax users to a better place, slowly. But many, many, many people on this planet can not afford an iPhone, or have one for some other reason, or it's just not right for them. And we the developer community are failing them on en masse because of our geek love for the highest of high tech. And this is not answering the needs that real users have.

Of course some will understand and answer this need. And they will be rewarded in ways that put the paltry sums the most successful iPhone developers make to shame.

And please don't reply to this post with the lamest of lame excuses – “we've tried that for years and it didn't work”.

Answer that one, Vlad.

I won't say I disagree with you Ewan, because I can't disagree with something as subjective as this rant. But, I would point out that I find it very interesting that you're dropping all the blame on Nokia and Symbian (and sometimes inter-changing these with no particular logic, I might add).

I do admire your “developers, developers, developers” motto and mantra (if that means anything even remotely related – I honestly don't know but love the way it sounds).

But I don't share it.

The developers you so cherish and credit for being the future (whatever that word means) are mainly a bunch of crybabies. Sorry. Ignorant crybabies.

And if they choose not to develop for Symbian, it's their *choice* and their loss. Literally: loss. As in, money lost, not whuffie points from Scoble.

Me? I always want more apps. I like apps. And the more, the better.

The real world, however, could not care less. That's a reality. And if you are going to call those mobile device users ignorant, then please, apply the same logic to developers.

What's the average price for a successful Twitter app for the iPhone? Compare that to what Jan Ole Suhr gets for his app on Symbian.

As for the fragmentation, bollocks. That app I just mentioned above, that serves as a great example (Gravity) comes as ONE sis file that you can install on THREE different generations of S60.

Sure, Nokia could do more for developers. Symbian too. And so could Apple. And they all will, because they have to constantly improve everything.

But the fact that you and I can't go and develop our own app, no matter what the platform, in 5 minutes with no actual knowledge of, well, anything, means that in order to be a developer you have to have developing skills.

Creating a fart app (or 10,000) does not qualify you as a developer in my book.

Again. More promotion from Nokia? Sure. More help for developers? Sure. But let's also have real developers, ok? I don't look forward to licking my phone.

The average low-end symbian phone gets about 6 months support from the manufacturer ( that is they usually fix the most grievous bugs ) but nothing close to the level of support that Apple commit to providing.

The average two year old symbian phone cannot possibly install applications intended for the current generation of phones which developers are targeting, hence you are paying the same in 20012 as you did in 2010 but for gear which is utterly incapable of keeping up with the standard.

If I had to blame somebody for this situation I think the networks are the most culpable: They are the ones who hype high-end featurephones to gullible early-adopters in order to mark up the price of a contract. In the end this is self-defeating because those early adopters know that the contracts force them to update less frequently.

This situation can only benefit android since the platform that can deliver the first fully-featured PAYG smart-phone is going to win all the disgruntled former contract-holders.

Nokia have given developers matchsticks to fight with in what was a hostile environment with walled gardens, blocked internet ports, poor access to network apis, fragmented phones etc

Apple walked in and dropped a small nuclear bomb into the cosy little forest arrangement and armed developers with automatic weapons, suddenly location, global distribution, global payment at non punitive revenue shares and discoverability had become easy making the environment less hostile for all involved

Android mean while has been quietly setting off smaller fires around the outside of the forest, that are gathering momentum.

There is nothing wrong with Symbian or JavaMobile on its own but when the whole ecosystem (SDK, user perception, data plans the phones are sold with, dev support, documentation, certification, testing) is put together the environment for third party developers leans heavily towards the iPhone and Android platforms currently

I am fairly simple chap I would love Androids SDK, Apples hardware, user base and marketing with Nokias marketshare, I think myself and other developers might flock to that eco system

whatever happens with Nokia, Apple et al 2010 is bound to be interesting from where I sit

Now days Nokia delivers them OTA (actually it wont for N97 v2.0 because it is so big). The N97 is one of the first phone Nokia specifically said at launch would have major upgrades, which would add major functionality… I guess people always want more. But bear in mind Nokia rolls out more OTA updates across more models and in more markets that anyone else… When is that going to become a significant business advantage (e.g. for pushing out new services or reducing support calls over the life of a phone).

Ideally it would all happen at once, but most people just aren't that concerned – over a month is fine. Yes stuff goes wrong – the red and blue 5800 incident springs to mind – which needs fixing.

But yes Nokia would do well not to annoy the influencers, who after all do understand why Nokia does some things and don't always have a rational, objective view point. And why should they? Just one more thing Nokia have to actor into to decision making…

Why no Ocado (see my other comment). But there's little business case for it full stop right now. iPhone is the easy reach, but serves only a small fraction of their customers (Ocado shoppers and iPhone onwers may correlate quite well, but how many of those have downloaded and used the app).

Why trauma – older platform that addresses mass market. Therefore has legacy issues, and is built to fulfill other requirements which were more important (and probably still are). Operators still a drag too.

What's being done about it? Qt and WRT – powerful combination, but it takes times. WRT currently under exploited – most web services could use this to create integration right now. Distribution will be fixed by Ovi Store in time (building for a cross-the-market portfolio and global is hard).

Its kind of like asking when will my Ford have the same stuff as my Tesla…

I think Alex has already posted a couple of great comments, but I might build on something he said…

As Alex said this is a view of the current moment in time, and I would add to that it is a view of a relatively small proportion of the market. There's an understandable obsession with tracking high end smartphone £400+ devices – but these are only the tip of the ice berg.

There's also a tendency to be ahead of the real world. Mobile has already created new technology worlds (near instant global communication anywhere, anytime)… but the best is yet to come. People reading blogs like this are playing with the next generation stuff that won't go mass market for some time. Yes these things can help sell high devices now because they are an obvious differentiators, but seriously how many people buy a device purely on these merits? And that's just the high end…

Yes, you can make the argument that the trends we see here will be repeated lower down the market in time. I do agree with this, but it is rather more complicated that the statement suggests. Yes we may see the same trends, but will they be implemented by the same companies in the same ways – almost certainly not (you can pick this out in almost any consumer electronics industry). I've seen the car industry quoted as a good example, but you could also pick out the PC market etc. etc.

So why is it different? Things might look the same, but the business processes and the technical structure is often very different – so too is the operating environment (internal legacy constraints and unavoidable externally governed constraints being the biggest factors).

That's a general thought on this.

Some great thoughts in this thread about Symbian development (mainly agree). But for all these great iPhone apps how may actually make money as a sustainable business – some sure – but a lot of it (with bigger companies) is just written off as promotional spend. It would be the same if they did Nokia apps too (maybe even more so given the distribution headaches). The market, as a whole, just isn't that mature as far as apps go. That's why Ewan says I'd like to use app / service x. Not I need to use… I bet he'd say I need my mobile phone to make calls. I need my phone to be pocketable (and so on). And Ewan is a high end user – this is even more true for mere mortals.

So one answer would be that any company putting money into mobile apps might have their sanity questioned… except of course its not always about the bottom line. You follow the media hype. You have non-revenue reasons for doing stuff (e.g. potential, learn now, exploit later). The iPhone is probably the easy reach now, but will it be the easy reach when things turn into multi-billion £ business'? Probably not as they wont address the whole market – that's a very fundamental difference to Nokia (which is why the Nokia versus Apple thing gets tiresome).

So yes I guess it is about patience. Should Nokia be doing better – definitely. Is it critical yet – nothing like it. Will they do better – yes. Will it be perfect Elysian fields – no. Will it have volume – yes. Will you be able to build big business on it – yes (though maybe only the future can answer that…). Will there be other players – most definitely.

I know there are exceptions to all of this (I'm sure we can all point to several case studies), but I speaking as a gross generalisation.

Nokia basically gets a lock of flack because its market leader… but compared to a lot of others it looks good… Sony Ericsson, Motorola, and so on… It doesn't excuse Nokia, but it does place their performance in context.

Crappy Nokia devices – yes S60 5th Edition UI is widely considered a dog – that should be separated from Symbian as an OS. Fair enough.. its being worked (and even so it still manages to be the second biggest selling platform – behind S60 3rd Edition that is)… S60 3rd Edition is said to be old and outdated – it is not – try an E52 or an N86. No it is not touch (the very horror), but it has no competition (outside RIM) and there's a good reason for it – its a very good platform – maybe its not considered high end by some (ignorance really). The E72 is probably the finest all round QWERTY you can get – but no one thinks about it because its not one of the 'cool' touch phones… Ok must control ranting here. Point being that there are some great devices and they're still selling well. You could say that's down to consumer ignorance, or maybe its because Nokia has delivered what the mass market operators (and to a less extent consumers) want?

What about turning this around? Apple's device are outrageously expensive, they have not manged to launch a mid tier device yet, their devices still regularly drop calls, have moderate battery life etc etc. All unfair because its not really what Apple is about in the mobile space. And let's be honest what self respecting geek (you know the ones concerned about network neutrality or how cool open source is, or how important freedom, the ones who celebrate the new open culture, the democratising effect of the web is etc etc.) should own an Apple phone – after all it has a horribly closed business model – that is about as far as you cant get from the geek 'open' culture that we're live in where utopia happens. Compare that to Nokia who have embraced open source and openness as their business model (Symbian Foundation one of the biggest ever contributions to open source). Every open source geek should be cheering Nokia on by buying a Nokia phone…. Of course I jest, but hopefully you get the point.

Whoops I appear to have ranted a bit. Ewan is an evil influence And I probably didn't even answer Ewan's questions.

Attempts to undermine the broad thrust of my post by making corrections to the sweeping statements I've made are ridiculous. They're 'sweeping' for a reason: Because I don't want to write a 50,000 word analysis.

Why can't I get Ocado on my Nokia N86?

Why is it such a flippin' trauma to develop for the Nokia/Symbian platform?

What's been done about it?