Originally Posted by lalaland:
“I think a major issue with Symbian, that is causing part of the problem today, is that despite many different handsets running Symbian it's normally the case that the middleware on top - the bit that the user sees and recognises to be 'Symbian' - is often limited to a certain brand or in some cases, down to certain models. What I mean by this is that you can buy an iPhone running iOS and you get compatibility with other iPhones. You can buy an Android phone and although the manufacturer may have chucked on a different UI, for the major part it's still Android and you get compatibility with other Android phones. This is what I think is wrong with Symbian.”
Android does have some segmentation - at the very least on screen sizes. There are issues with apps that will only run on certain hardware - Google earth will only run on ARMv7 devices, it won't run on ARMv6. You've got to mess around to get the lovely HTC home screens to work on non-HTC devices.
Similarly, the SE and Samsung devices shipped with a set of non-Nokia certificates which meant that without hacking them they could access the Ovi store. It worked both way - some games that were written for the distinctly different hardware of the i8910 and Satio wouldn't run on Nokia devices.
So on this count at least, Android and Symbian are in very similar situations.
Quote:
“Yes, I suspect the UI puts people off too. But if that's the case then it makes no odds as to what OS is underneath it because your average shopper doesn't care, even if they did understand the difference.”
This is the one area of the N8 that I really do not understand. They've pumped god knows how much money into the development of the device, have evolved the overall user experience into something more consistent, but somehow have decided that keeping the icon set from the 5800 is a good idea. Bizarre.
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“The days of smartphones being bulging devices in only the pockets of geeks who want a bit more function than the small neat phone in everyone else's pocket is well and truely over. The brands have managed to make geeky smartphones attractive and made them appeal to the non-geeky out there and this is why Symbian is sinking fast with the likes of Android rushing up to take it's crown.”
Just out of interest, how come Symbian is sinking fast with increasing sales? Sure, its not increasing at the same level as Android, but thats the only platform thats rapidly increasing its market share.
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“Currently Symbian has the highest market share in smartphone users. However that's now dropping. This is because we've moved from smartphones appealing to a specific techie market to being appealing for all. Symbian's not kept up and it's suffering as a consequence.”
Thats being selective. Market share has slowly dropped, but take that in context - market share drop, but with continually increasing sales.
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“But they already have competition in this area too. Android handsets are being produced for the lower price range and are already available. With Symbian it's a case of 'in the future' they'll be running low end devices. Again they've left it too late as Google takes hold of the lower price market too.”
You mean, like the been-available-for-a-year Nokia 5230 that runs the same apps as the 5800, but is sub £80? Nokia already have a head start over the low end Android devices.
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“Nobody's going to buy a cheap Symbian device if they can find a cheap Android device because of the points discussed already with the top end devices.”
You sure about that? Try to find another sub £100 phone that has a truly useful worldwide satnav option.
There isn't one. Android can do it with Google maps, but your roaming data charges would be utterly horrendous.
