06 July 2009

Nokia Working On Android Based Phone!
What Does It Means For Symbian Foundation?

Throughout its long history, Finnish mobile phone giant has changed its business model many times.

Initially the company started as a lumber mill on the banks of the river Nokia in 1865. Since then it evolved into a large stodgy conglomerate which produced everything from rubber boots and cables to lavatory paper to televisions and finally established itself as the main producer of mobile-phone handsets on the world and I wonder have you ever asked yourself what the next is?!

Well, assuming that all of these rumours are spreading true facts, Nokia might radically changes its strategy once again and dumb Symbian after it has invested years and hundreds of millions of Euros to make it open source and more competitive in the high-performance Smartphone market.

The Guardian reports that Nokia is planning to throw away Symbian and use Android to power one of its next high-end touchscreen device (which according to numerous sources, has been in the works for quite some time) that will be unveiled at the Nokia World conference in September!?

I don’t think that Nokia is going to totally dump Symbian because it is still best mobile operating system at the moment, it is OS that I love and that I got to use it. It indeed needs first radical face-lift in years, it appeals for an improved user friendly interface capable to compete with Aplle’s iPhone, Palm’s Pre and HTC handsets powered with Android OS.

To sum up, couple of months ago, Nokia has already denied speculations about Linux powered mobile phones and claimed that they definitely have no plans to use any sort of Linux platform for their mobile phones! Nokia is even planning to switch Maemo to Qt as the main toolkit in the future so I really doubt we’ll get any Android powered Nokia phone this year! They might release yet another Linux powered tablet but they’ll keep Maemo as platform so there is no chance to see Android on it!

From other hand, if interface is all that matters and if the phone operating system is no longer important, sticking onto Symbian might become Nokia’s Achilles' heel and I’ll not be surprised if Nokia finally decide to switch horses!? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!?? Will Nokia Release Entierly New Aseries Family Of Smartphones?

Nokia, which makes roughly four out of every 10 mobile phones sold, has been losing out in the market for phones that can access the internet, send emails and download third-party applications, to products such as the Apple iPhone and BlackBerry Storm. The Android software platform, meanwhile, has been gaining ground with over half a dozen handsets expected to be available by the end of the year.

Analysts at HSBC reckon Nokia had 47% of the global smartphone market in 2007; that was down to 35% last summer and 31% at the end of the year. The smartphone segment is critical as it is the only part of the mobile phone market which is growing. Cash-strapped consumers are either holding on to their existing phones and opting for cheaper SIM-only deals or "trading up" to more advanced gadgets such as the iPhone. Opting to use Android, an "open source" platform that any software developer can access, is a reversal of the company's previous strategy in mobile phone software.