There aren’t many people over 25 to have never used a Symbian device. The platform was responsible for the invention of the smartphone as we know it: a connected device with multitasking capacities, offering more and more of the things we could only do on a desktop computer before.
The once huge and mighty Symbian consortium desintegrated a few years ago, leaving Nokia as the only owner still believing and investing in it – up until today, now that Nokia has announced it will not produce anymore Symbian devices after the Nokia 808 PureView.
It’s a moment in time. It’s over and done with. It’s a wrap. And it’s a shame, and shows not only living creatures actually die in the end. Many people are getting pretty sentimental over this – and I’m not thrilled about the idea either.
But I’ll use it as a starting point for this very long post instead, in which I’ll take you on a trip down memory lane, back to the origins of Symbian, up to where we are now and where that leaves us – and Nokia.
1984
The story starts in 1984 (!), with a British device called the Psion Organiser…
It might interest you to know it had 6K internal memory, with some applications are on 8K memorycards. This now almost 30 year old Psion organiser marks the very start of the mobile computing.
It’s an extremely modest Big Bang of an industry that has grown into an ever expanding technological universe.
The next one, the Psion Organiser II from 1986, is considered to be the first PDA (personal digital assistent), although no-one has invented that term yet. It’s the year when many decide to say goodbye to the old filofax and pocket calculator.
It’s not just Psion starting this new industry. Three years later the Atari Portfolio makes a big impression on people. I had one back then (still have it), and it was very high-end equipment! It boasted a 128K memory (expandable with incredibly expensive memorycards).
The Atari Portfolio had a 4,9MHz processor that would keep the device running on three AA batteries for weeks.
It’s also in 1989 that Psion launches its next device, the MC-series, the first laptop, based on its own EPOC platform. It’s not a PDA and it’s not a success either, because it’s way too expensive.
Two years later however, Psion has a smash hit for those days, with Psion Series 3. It has a QWERTY keyboard built-in, and from 1991 the company sell more than a 1.5 million devices – that would be a failure now, but was a major success in those days.
Much later, in 1999, the next series were announced by Psion: the Series 5, offering the possibility to connect it to your cell phone using… infrared! It sounds incredibly ancient by now, but back then, it was state of the art.
Symbian
In 1998, Psion split its business into three parts: Computers, Enterprise and Software. The latter is a partnership with Nokia and Ericsson, to create a special cell phone operating system.
Seen in this way, we can now conclude that Symbian has been developped for 15 years. The first real Symbian PDA (with QWERTY keyboard) is the Nokia 9210 (2000), a brilliant combination of a mobile phone and PDA: a smartphone.
Others
But it’s not just Psion – or Nokia – that gets the credits for the development of the mobile revolution. Apple has the Newton MessagePad in 1993 (no, Apple was not the first), Jeff Hawkins had the GridPad the same year.
Hawkins would be immensly succesfull with Palm, starting with the Palm Pilot, “product of the year” in 1999 according to Business Week, and no doubt a big inspiration for Steve Jobs.
Later, Hawkins would be responsible for Handspring, that would combine the PDA with the cell phone in the quite succesfull Palm Treo, starting in 2002.
But that wasn’t the first by far. The very first smartphone – combining GSM and PDA – was the Nokia 9000 Communicator from 1997 (!!)
It’s absolutely impossible to overestimate the innovative power of Nokia. But working together on Symbian with Ericsson, the Swedes had a great Symbian premiere with the Ericsson R380 - the first in fact to be marketed as a “smartphone”, and the very first touchscreen smartphone as well.
As Sony Ericsson, the company made a big impression with their P-series on Symbian, starting with the P800 up untill the P990 and P1i.
But also, Sony Ericsson left the Symbian building, like so many other companies (Samsung, Motorola, etc), leaving Nokia behind as the only company still refusing to embrace Android. To no avail, in the end, that is: it didn’t save Symbian from dying.
Symbian is not dead yet though! The Nokia 808 PureView is its testament and everybody agrees it’s a landmark in technological innovation. It’s still there, you can buy one! It’s probably one of the most converged devices on the market and without any doubt it has the best smartphone camera ever and probably for years to come – and I’m serious about that.
I’ve often written it never ceases to amaze me and it still doesn’t in fact. The Nokia 808 PureView is an incredible joy to hold and use, and moreover, it’s standy time will put many other high-end smartphones to shame. I could go on for hours, but I won’t. Let just say it’s King of Camphones, that covers it.
But there’s more
I’m no financial analyst (far from, even), but this is something that’s worrying me a bit. From this year, Nokia will have to pay royalties to Microsoft, as you can read here. Nokia got a staggering $250.000.000 from Microsoft for every quarter using Windows Phone.
As far as I understand, starting this year Nokia will pay more for royalties than it receives from Microsoft. How much more is unknown to the public. I have no idea what the implications are.
But it sometimes makes me wonder if leaving Symbian – a rich and versatile platform Nokia owned for 100% – was the absolutely inevitable move Nokia simply had to make to survive. Looking at the newest versions of Nokia Belle on the 808 PureView (or the N8 or E7), I’m extremely impressed of what it’s capable of – and I know I’m not alone.
To conclude: I always thought partnering with Microsoft was a creative move, combining the best of both worlds in software and hardware, creating an ecosystem with a global reach. But I never understood Nokia’s move to completely throw away everything it invested in Symbian. And to tell you the truth: I still don’t.
So this is my reaction on today’s announcement by Nokia. An epitaph for Symbian. The Nokia 808 PureView will be the very last Symbian device. End of an era. But as long as Nokia will produce it for the next say 5 years, I think we can get used to the idea – reluctantly.
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infact i hate windows phones from nokia.I think nokia should bring symbian OS in the system again.And many people love symbian phone. Nokia gave us rumour that they will produce nokia n8-01 I think when nokia produce this phone with symbian powered nokia will be top producing phone in the world.
I think “hate” is a waste of time in general – life would be so much more pleasant if people would just stop hating anything or anyone. Second: I happen to like WP8 and I would love to see The Return Of Symbian. I’m not holding my breath though.
Well, i finally broke down and considering all the facts for now, i opted to buy the Nokia PureView 808 (in black). I have the N8 (silver) right now but its showing its age and has started to turn off intermittently (even after i have reflashed factory firmware a few times and given it a new battery).
I did consider the WP8 Lumia 920 but hearing news of a possible high MP WP8 device later in the year, I couldnt bring myself to buy the Lumia 920 now and then miss out on the new device later…
I may still ask my wife to consider moving to a Lumia, perhaps the aluminum bodied version?
Any recommendations for a case for the 808?
I use the Amzer case, available in white and black as far as I know.
http://www.amazon.com/Amzer-AMZ93944-Gloss-Cover-PureView/dp/B0083QKFYO
I don’t know about black case, but I think the best case for white nokia 808 is puro silicone case. Italians realy nailed it down with this one.
I’ll be holding on to my N8 and using my Nokia 808 Pureview for quite some time.
There is nothing out there, Apple, Samsung or any other manufacturer that is producing a phone I’d want to own or use on a daily basis.
Hopefully Symbian will become open and development will continue amongst the fans and community.
+808!
−
http://youtu.be/DJpxTBtyNaw
Farewell dear Symbian, you have served us FAITHFULLY despite NOKIA.
I’m a Nokia fan for 15 years now and I own both 808 and 920. I thought I never could let Symbian down before using the 920. For the first time, I have the impression to use a real smartphone : very fluid, big screen,etc. The only thing I would miss from Symbian is a few software features, the 808 camera, HDMI and FM transmitter. For the rest, I never thought I could say that someday but I’m very happy with WP8! And to the opposite of Symbian, I now know I’m using a software which is still evolving and that I will get updates, new features and new apps in the next months and that makes me happy. I believe that Nokia Windows phones will be more and more near from what Symbian could do today. So even if it’s sad for Symbian, I’m confident Nokia will push Windows in the right way! Let’s see what the next updates will bring!
I just got mine today. Bought it at Azerty.nl for 375 euros, shipment costs included. Now just some accessories from Amazon :)
Somehow I do not think the 808 will be produced from nokia for the next 5 years, as already approx 6 months of release the unit and the unit is already $450USD. This is a very fast drop for a device that was just released. Understanding though the release of 920 did not help. Predict manufacture of 808 will cease by end of this year by the latest, making way for the so called 2013 “eos” pureview 41mp
Of course it won’t, that was wishful thinking. But it still amazes me how much you’ll have to pay for a new 808 still over here – hardly a price drop! I´d love to see Nokia producing the 808 for a longer time though. Wishful thinking once more, I’m afraid.
Marc,
Any update on the HDR app development?
We need to keep the 808 alive with new apps like this!
thanks
For everyone that has an issue with Elop.
Rember that he was able to financially help Nokia. Microsoft pays €250mlj (I think) each year and they get the software for free till their base is big enough. I am certain that without this financial input Nokia would be broke by now. It’s not only the money, but when a company such as MS is willing to pay a company investors are more likely to pay also.
Even een switch to Android wouldn’t help Nokia to be profitable fast enough.
Elop saved Nokia remember that!
It’s been $250.000.000 for the past four quarters if I understand correctly. The support is massive, absolutely. But that period is going to end soon. No wonder – wish I could have 0,01% of that kind of sponsorship! :-)
Well, the number you mentioned is definitely huge. But do you also know about restrictions MS might have implied in this deal ?
With a HUGE marketing effort, Nokia sold double the amount of windows phones compared to Symbian phones in 2012. If they would have spend all this money in getting Symbian up to date AND having another OS like MeeGo, WinPhone, Android you cannot imagine where Nokia could be by now.
They declared 2 OS for dead!!! I still can’t believe it and i am not that loyal to Nokia anymore. Maybe the 808 will be my last device. Interesting new products are comming from other manufacturers also!
Excuse the ignorance that has been floating consistently in the internet.
Mr. Stephen Elop implied to Nokia, the board and shareholders that Windows Phone would replace Symbian sales in 1:1 ratio. Meaning that Symbian was selling 29 Million phones a year, Windows Phone sells 29 Million phones a year.
“Nokia’s CEO promised – PROMISED his strategy would take 2 years to implement and would yield a 1-to-1 conversion from Symbian to Windows Phone. So we should be seeing at least 29 million smartphone sales now (per quarter), that was the level when this strategy was annouced. The industry has more than doubled in size in the mean time. But rather than accomplishing his mission, when attempting the conversion,Elop has scared 17 out of 20 loyal customers away from Nokia altogether.
And of the 3 who remain, the latest consumer survey says the Windows Phone users are so disgusted, two out of three will not buy another Windows Phone again. So out of 20 conversion attempts, 17 went straight to competitors, 2 were tricked into trying Lumia but hate it so much, they will churn away from Nokia as fast as they can get rid of the current contract, and only 1 out of 20 attempts is a happy camper.”
“If you are new to this blog, and are honestly curious, is Elop really at fault here. Can the CEO be that bad – or perhaps, why are many management experts starting to call him one of the worst CEO’s out there – like CNBC which included Nokia CEO Stephen Elop as one of their 5 finalists of who they consider the world’s worst CEO of 2012 – I am not making this up. This is not Tomi’s delusions. There is a growing consensus that Elop is literally one of the worst CEOs ever seen…” “Elop has made a long series of STRATEGIC mistakes – in fact, strategic by HIS OWN STANDARD, the strategist he quotes.”
Elop saving Nokia? WE DON’T THINK SO. FACT.
Apologies for the error, it was not 29 Million units per YEAR but 29 Million units PER QUARTER.
And they killed Symbian with over 23.9% market share in favor of Windows Phone which has currently 6% market share.
Market share and competition
On 16 November 2006, the 100 millionth smartphone running the OS was shipped. As of 21 July 2009, more than 250 million devices running Symbian OS had been shipped.
In 2006, Symbian had 73% of the smartphone market, compared with 22.1% of the market in the second quarter of 2011.
This was during Elop’s reign of terror.
Had you not mentioned anything about Stephen Elop, we would not be having this discussion.
I think this should be appropriate for Windows Phone
http://youtu.be/EaLUl18opDw
Buy it now. 808 will be valuable for collectors in the future.
Hunting for irrestable offers already :-)
i totally agree wit u Andy Tang,808is awsome of a milestone4Nokia.My1st Symbian Nokia was 7650&So on >>3650,6260,6600,C503,N79,5800XM..Ohhhh My… those were the days Nokia Dominate the world of Smartphone.i was A Great Fan.i hope so 808will continuing its manufacturing..but i read an article last yr,Nokia stated dat Symbian wil b handle by other 3rd party company but in a smaller scale,probably underlicense..So Nokia wil Fully Focus in Microsoft WP8 PHONE 2013.
a sad day. Clearly, the move of leaving Symbian is a harsh one. I still remember the day I bought Nokia 5700 and never again returned to dumb phones: the speed, and more importantly, the ability to run several apps in the background is great. Now with WP that´s almost gone; you just get a frozen app that recieves no clock cycles from the processor as Symbian does.
Really a wasted opportunity for Nokia, since it had a great OS with lots of costumers to get developers interested.
I just wander why Nokia abandons it now, when it finally gets great; Why not abandon S40 instead?
what if they put Symbian as an open source code so the community of developers can continue…
How polite to never bash Elop, lol
I do believe that Symbian failed long before Elop took over, It failed due to fragmentation horrible horrible fragmentation along with an almost anti-apps APIs, lack of App stores and the huge portfolio of devices with different sizes and capacities . which ceased devs interest in the platform and in Nokia as whole.
I believe Elop worked wonders at Nokia , and even though I still get an out of date OS and bugs , I feel that I’m actually using a SMARTPHONE for once …
(Lumia920/808 owner.)
What about MeeGo?
Meego was just a blink of it…just as mere testing..Nokia didn’t wana proceed wit the meego OS
Nokia had Download! And N-Gage much before the app store. And also the diversity of form factors was both a strength and a weakness. The api issue was going to be resolved through use of qt, in both Symbian and MeeGo.
I wrote it before, I’ll write it again: I’m not in the Elop bashing business, which doesn’t mean I can’t be critical – as I think I am in this article.
Nice article. Very sad day for Symbian and 808 fans, i also hope that Nokia continuing manufacturing the 808 for 5years+