Will Nokia ditch Symbian?

First things first – can you imagine a Nokia smartphone without Symbian? Surely not.
Today while reading an article by Forbes’ author Eric Savitz , I came across some points (inferences, basically) that I found quite irrelevant and illogical.

Unlike many of it’s competitors, Nokia has been faithful to Symbian right from the start. Samsung, Motorola, LG, all have had their tryst with multiple OSs. Only Blackberry and Apple stand up to Nokia, in terms of using only one OS. Sticking with one OS would certainly mean that the companies would have had to make a lot of investment into R&D.; Why? You’d hate being served the same old OS all the time. Innovation comes at a price. As for Apple, it’s not as high as compared to Nokia, that being because they have started only in 2007.

For reference purpose, Eric considered this report by Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley, who suggests four options that Nokia may/will consider.

1. Sticking with Symbian for low, mid end phones and Meego for high end smartphones.

2. Phase out Symbian and shift to Meego.

3. Phase out Symbian and shift to Android.

4. Shifting to Windows Phone 7.

He makes several interesting (or illogical) points. According to him, going with Symbian would be risky as even the latest iteration of Symbian seems outdated when compared to Android. Admitted. But hey, comparing a low, mid end smartphone (that’s multimedia-centric) with a high end super-phone is plainly childish and incomparable. The N8 costs just around 21k INR and Androids are upwards of it, barring a couple here and there. Argument 1 ruled out.

Looking at option 2 excites me. Why? To be honest, I’ve just not tried Meego/Maemo OS yet. But going by the great reviews, it’s logical that it has managed to create a positive impression on me. But again, I don’t think Meego is just ready as of now. There’s still lot of fine-tuning needed and doling out smartphones with this would be a disastrous decision.

Next he says Nokia could make a move to Android. That’s what is ideal according to him. Guess he does not remember Nokia’s pledge towards Symbian. And in no case can Nokia do that. It has made a lot of investments to make Symbian what it is today. Any bloke with logical mind would not even think or suggest this.

Lastly, he goes on to say that Windows Phone 7 stands as an opportunity for both Nokia and Microsoft. While the fortunes of Microsoft depend heavily on how WP7 fares, Nokia is not dependent on any third party OS for their success. They have all the infrastructure in place, and going by the principle ‘form follows function’, it’s pretty easy to say that Symbian just works. As I’ve repeated time and again that it just needs to be beautified, I still say Nokia can do business profitably with Symbian-Meego combo. It’s actually that developers and the hypnotized consumers don’t understand this. Well, it’s all ‘Help yourselves’ these days, so I guess consumers will have to realise this.

Again, there’s QT to be considered. A lot of investment has been made and saying that they’ll forgo this too, will actually do what these suggestors intend to save Nokia from – Disaster.

While Eric has just used the references to tell what he thinks, it’s not logical. No, I don’t’ have a soft corner for Nokia or Symbian. It’s just about getting facts and logic right. Perfect example of a desperate hoax shoutout, Symbian won’t die, though it may change how it works. Let the naysayers RIP.

Posted by Wordmobi