I'm a long time user of Symbian (go back to Psion 3A) and still day dream about what could have, should have been but the world has turned. Nokia and Symbian have not demonstrated the capability to turn with it in a way that will enable it to capture the smart phone market.
CSB

So far I have been somehow roped into 2 side projects, the Qt presentation blew my mind, I learned that Sun has contributed code to the Symbian foundation, which makes me eager to attend the BOF session on the future of managed runtimes later today.

The number of exhibitors has basically been cut in half, the organization of the event leaves a lot to be desired (I'm assuming a drastic budget cut this year) and the Wiley booth doesn't seem to be shifting many books but the 3 afternoon streams are going at least as strong as last year.

The battle will be between Symbian and Android.

Android already has a mature app-store and a great deal of momentum. Symbian has a whole load of legacy and has managed to annoy developers.

My wife was a speaker today at the Symbian conference. She mentioned that the whole thing seemed dead and pointless. Symbian has already lost the PR war. It's heamoraging developers and will shortly loose the App war. Nokia is to blame. With the exception of the unreleased N900 they have delivered nothing substantially new since the amazing N95. They are guilty of a gross failure of imagination.

You make a very good point. I come from India…and I remember that way before the iPhone came…when I had my Nokia 7210 http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_7210-318.php There used to be a game, wallpapers, themes etc for almost every big Hindi movie production.

It's not just the walled-garden: The networks are stultifying progress by tricking customers into outrageous 2y contracts on devices which are quite obsolete and unsupported by the manufacturers within a year.

It's not just the walled-garden: The networks are stultifying progress by tricking customers into outrageous 2y contracts on devices which are quite obsolete and unsupported by the manufacturers within a year.

I work with a mobile marketing company and we do the whole range of services from iPhone, to Symbian apps and all that and we get 2 types of media clients in the door.

1. That wants an iPhone app
2. That wants to provide an app that the majority of handsets can interact with.

The problem with iPhone apps is there limited market penetration, although yes they look absolutely great (in general) and therefore marketeers love them.

The problem with developing any other apps is, that they arent iPhone apps but from a brand perspective can give you a broader reach.

So what are our customers doing if they want a nice interactive piece of content, that can be accessed by a normob? Asking us to develop a WAP site! Most operators (at least in Ireland anyway) have capped 99cent per day offerings are the public are now used to interacting with brands that way, and you get to deliver a media rich experience which on a per campaign basis (such as a movie launch) ticks all the major boxes.

Of course one could argue that using WAP is a step back, although this could be true from a technology point of view, when you consider the Normob, they dont care or know how they are getting the experience they just want to get it….

Why no 'Nokia App' on the home screen of the Sony Pictures movie site?

Or, if you're working on the basis that Motorola is far more popular in the States, why no 'Motorola App'?

The answer is simple: Everything else for Sony Pictures is irrelevant — and we move on…

I like your site and your journalism, but really you're doing your credibility no favours with this sort of article. I've seen more sound reasoning in the Sunday Sport (or would have if I read it).

Nokia and Symbian are not even beginning to be in the state that you suggest they are. Not even beginning! A short term local blip in recent months etc sure. Market shares and popularity ebb and flow though.

If Nokia and Symbian fail and Android and iPhone eventually reign supreme, I will shed no tears. But really, no one has ANY evidence to suggest this is their medium or long term fate. There is WAY too much short term reactionism going on here. Which is what geeks tend to do (sigh)….

Here's a different viewpoint for all you naysayers and prophets of doom to read:
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/20…

1.) Yes, in choosing a single phone platform to develop an application for in the American market, you would pick the iPhone because it has the most units in the US and moreover the kind of people who buy iPhones are the kind of people who are willing to spend a few dollars on apps.

2.) There’s somewhere called the rest of the world. Heard of it? That’s everywhere outside the US. The population is quite big, over 6 billion. Might be a market there.

If you think the mobile market swings on the ability of film studios to develop tie-in games easily for a particular platform, then words can’t describe how misinformed you are.

Hollywood is US driven to a very high degree. Nokia is, currently, nowhere in the US (despite some efforts). That's why you get something like this.

Not to mention the fact you credit the entertainment industry with a rational decision making process when it comes to mobile. iPhone apps are a glamour item that look good for promotion (not about making money).

An (for my own comment bait). How much do apps really matter at the moment? How many people by a phone because of apps (or rather the perception of apps)? And of those who do care for how many it is a crucial factor (versus cost / what it looks life / camera / web browsing etc etc). How quickly is this changing?

Yes iPhone may be 'it' at the moment in the US market. That's one market? What about India, China, Europe? But this is still dwarfed by JME content – which if your talking global, maximum impact, minimum costs is still (probably the way to go).

BTW I agree absolutely that Nokia needs to up its game and you need a good experience as possible, but, whatever people may think, there is still loads of time to do that for the mass market.