New Technology Reviews!.: Symbian

Symbian websites closing doors 17 December

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/classifications/gadgets/phones/mobile-phones/symbianlogo-200-200.jpg"> The Symbian Foundation has announced it is shutting down its websites from the 17 December as it "transitions to a licensing body". The Foundation will continue to operate by licensing out software and maintaining intellectual property, but developers will no longer be able to get hold of the source code directly from the website. Instead, the source code, kits, wiki, bug database, reference documentation and Symbian Ideas will likely be available for a small fee on DVD or memory stick - but this won't be available until 31 January 2011 at the earliest. Still happy about apps The Symbian Foundation's Twitter feed and Facebook account will close too, although Symbian Signed, the application approval process, will continue to run. Nokia has "committed to make the future development of the Symbian platform available to the ecosystem via an alternative direct and open model", so it will be interesting to see just what that is. But for now, it looks like Symbian is slowly winding down, or at the very least, that it's going to be Nokia's baby from now on.

Symbian websites closing doors 17 December

The Symbian Foundation has announced it is shutting down its websites from the 17 December as it "transitions to a licensing body"...

Android second only to Symbian in smartphone sales

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/Mobile%20Phones/Samsung/samsung-galaxy-S-i90001-200-200.jpg"> The rise and rise of Android has seen it become the second biggest operating system in the world, according to the latest figures. <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1466313">Gartner's research</A> suggests that, with worldwide smartphone sales up by a whopping 96 per cent and hitting 19.3 per cent of the total market, Apple and Android handsets are changing the market. "This is the third consecutive double-digit increase in sales year-on-year, indicating that consumer demand is healthy," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. Record sales "This quarter saw Apple and Android drive record smartphone sales," she added. "Apple's share of the smartphone market surpassed Research In Motion (RIM) in North America to put it second behind Android while Android volumes also grew rapidly making it the No. 2 operating system worldwide." Nokia, Samsung and LG – in that order – have clung on to the market leader manufacturer spots, although Apple has now leapfrogged over RIM into fourth spot. According to Gartner's figures, 25.5 per cent of all smartphones sold carried the Android OS, still some way behind Symbian on 36.6 per cent. But, the same quarter last year saw Symbian take a 44.6 per cent share of the market, compared to just 3.5 per cent for Google's Android. Selling well Apple's iOS lost a little in terms of percentage, but with the total market doubling, the iPhone manufacturer shifted almost twice as many handsets. RIM – the makers of BlackBerry phones – moved from a 20.7 per cent share to 14.8 per cent share, whilst Microsoft will be keen that its newly introduced Windows Phone 7 can arrest a slide from 7.9 per cent of sales to just 2.8 in the past quarter's figure.

Android second only to Symbian in smartphone sales

The rise and rise of Android has seen it become the second biggest operating system in the world, according to the latest figures. Gartner...

Gary Marshall: Nokia needs to fix Symbian or dump it

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/TechRadar/Mobile%20phones/Nokia/C6/pr/nokia_C6_front_flip_white_4x3-200-200.jpg"> Back in September, we reported that Sony Ericsson and Samsung were dumping the Symbian operating system in favour of Android. "Symbian isn't dead," <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/why-nokia-now-needs-to-embrace-android-719679">we said</A>, "but it's gone a funny grey colour." That grey colour's gone even funnier today, because Nokia's <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/nokia-takes-over-symbian-development-906533">grabbing Symbian back</A> from the Symbian Foundation. So is the firm about to invest yet more time in flogging a horse that's only good for glue, or is it up to something more interesting? I hope it's the latter. The demise of the Symbian foundation is no surprise. With key partners deserting, Nokia was the only big phone firm left - so having an extra layer of bureaucracy between Nokia and Symbian doesn't make sense. Retaking control means that Nokia can do what's needed and send Symbian to boot camp. Symbian is well liked by developers and powers all kinds of feature phones, but it isn't getting punters excited in the smartphone arena. In that respect it's rather like the now-defunct Windows Mobile, and if Nokia wants Symbian to be a serious platform for smartphones then it needs to do what Microsoft did: invest enormous amounts of time and talent to make it a genuine contender again. Attitude change To make that happen, Nokia needs to change its attitude: it's long been a hardware company, but smartphones are about software - and Nokia's software isn't as good as rival mobile OSes. As <a href="about:[http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/nokia-c7-905015/review">our Nokia C7 review</A> put it: "We aren't sure Nokia has done enough to make its revamped OS special. It still has nested menus that would make HTC and Apple cringe, and our review handset crashed a couple of times… Symbian^3 just doesn't feel like it has the sparkle or ease of use to take on the leaders, we're afraid." That needs to change. While Nokia remains the world's biggest phone firm, its market share is slipping and Android will move into the feature phone market where Symbian currently thrives. Analysts at Gartner <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1434613">predict</A> that Nokia's global market share will fall to 30.2% by 2014, while Android's will rise to 29.6% and iOS to 14.9%. Nokia's other OS, Meego, is expected to do low single figures. It's hard not to blame Symbian for Nokia's fading fortunes. Partners don't want it, the US isn't even sure what it is, and in review after <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/nokia-n8-692448/review">review</A> it takes the shine off otherwise amazing handsets. Nokia needs to fix it or dump it. When you're competing with iOS and Android you need a racehorse, not a donkey.

Gary Marshall: Nokia needs to fix Symbian or dump it

Back in September, we reported that Sony Ericsson and Samsung were dumping the Symbian operating system in favour of Android. "Symbian ...