Nokia to pass on Android, focus on MeeGo and Symbian

I have to say I have been a Nokia fan for many years and I agree with most commentators that they have to be on crack to ignore Android. I have to add that Symbian is a very functional smartphone OS in a traditional push button mobile. Back when most Americans thought that the moto razr was the best invention since the sliced break, nokia had the N95 with its 5.0 megapixel camera, Wifi, GPS with downloadable maps, and TV out. Heck, there was an application called Joikuspot back in 2008 to turn your phone into a 3G wifi hotspot ( something that is still lacking almost all androids ). Also, sharing files between phones is a piece of cake using symbian without the need to install any additional programs.

Having praised nokia/symbian, I have to turn to its bad points.
For starters, Nokia, along with most manufacturers, were caught offguard by the success of Apple’s iphone. It would be more than a year before they were able to produce an ‘answer’ – the 5800 [ Android was being worked on during this time period] Nokia decided to use resistive touchscreens which are not easy to use. So nokia included a plastic pen to help but its more of pain than anything else. Navigating through the menu system is not very easy, you have to double click on almost anything you want to open. Browsing web pages is also problematic in that many of the pages sides get simply cutoff.
But the number one reason why Nokia’s touchscreen phones are not very popular is the availablity of applications. There are simply not enough of them( maybe like 50-100 total). The Ovi store is a joke.

So to summarize, Nokia/Symbian is a late comer to a very competitve touchscreen market.

Nokia, unfortunately, is still arrogant in thinking that it will somehow magically attract developers for both meego and symbian. Thats not gonna happen. Most developers are very happy focusing on an exponentially growing Android. Even if its not the best OS out there, its what sells. Speeking of Meego, its an already dead project. Their number one supporter (intel) has come out publically last week in strong support of Android. In other words, they are about to abandon Meego.

Sorry for the rant.

Ok, we’re all intelligent people here. Let’s take a look at the current market place.

We have two major players. One offers yearly release cycle. This player manufactures one phone, provides one OS. There is one market place, and this player owns it. Picks and chooses applications it likes and has severe restrictions that openly hamper competition and dwarf innovation.

The other player provides the framework and the OS. There are many phones, released every couple of months. The OS updated frequently and brings new features. There are many ways to obtain applications and the market encourages and promotes creativity. There are far fewer rules and restrictions. Many of the applications that exist on this platform would never be permitted in the first player’s sandbox.

So where does this leave Nokia? A company that has consistently misjudged the market since the beginning of the century is not in a position to afford mistakes. Mistakes that occur once the product is shipped to the market are very costly…

I’d love to see a Nokia Android phone. Just to see what.Nokia would do.

stop all the nonsense over NOK and Android

NOK would be suicidal to put its handset roadmap into the hands of a co that controls certification, releases schedules and features, whether they get access to Android market, etc

NOK will try to co-opt Adnroid via QT, but anyone who says NOK shoudl go Android doesnt understadn how this industry works.

You people aren’t thinking clearly. Nokia doesn’t need to abandon MeeGo and go full bore on Android. They can do what Samsung is doing now. Release Android phones and work on their own OS. Nokia could easily release some good mid-range to high-end devices running Andoird and use that to learn what the consumers want and tailor MeeGo to those needs. They make some good revenue in the meantime and learn what not to do.

If the NA market is not important then why is Nokia bothering releasing devices for that market?

This may not be a bad thing because I have more platform choice and I have a reason I keep using nokia.
MeeGo is an evolution of Maemo and I am generally happy with it, so I have confidence with it.

If Nokia got AT&T to pick up this N8-01 which everybody is claiming as the N9 or E7, and AT&T left everything alone, that would be PHENOMENAL for this market. Too bad AT&T has serious issues with anything other than the iPhone and Blackberry OS. Finally Android users know how we have felt over the years after watching AT&T ruin our phones.

T-Mobile is showing how it should be done. Leave the software alone, leave the sales package alone, and leave the device alone (I’ll let the E73 slide on that because it still looks good)

I don’t know if anyone has made the connection yet, I didn’t bother reading all the post, lol… But sure hope this statement clarifies where Nokia stands with Symbian and now Meego. As far as I can understand by research done on my own; Symbian is still going to be Nokia’s primary smartphone OS while Meego will power their mobile computers(Eg. like MID, Netbooks and tablets). Symbian may be old, but it was made to be adaptable; thus the Symbian Foundation was formed to shape the new Symbian. Meego is new, and it is being developed for the purpose of complementing Nokia’s entry into Computers and Software(anyone remember the Booklet 3G?). And in order for these platforms to co-exist and compliment each other; QT was aquired from Trolltech. The new QT Developing Environment is the bridge that ties Symbian Smartphones to their Meego Mobile Computers.

see a Nokia Android phone

It is a big mistake on the part of Nokia to snub Andriod. Google’s strategy was simple and humble. Their move to stop selling Nexus One phone was compatible with their strategy of selling android to all manufacturers to sell through carriers. And this worked. More android phones have been sold than iphone which is captive with ATT. Also, the tightness of applications with Andriod will offer superior user experience. Also get this.. more youth bought android phones than iphone..so, Android is already creating a solid long term base and will leverage this to drive their overall marketshare in all things web and mobile.
If i were to make a stock recommendation, Buy Google, Hold Apple and Sell Nokia

A Nokia pirou e não vai voltar a liderança se continuar pensando assim. O Android é o futuro e quem não acreditar nisso vai morrer. O Android está para o smartphone como o Windows está para o PC.
Nokia, pense bem, você teve uma oportunidade de virar o jogo, mas está desperdiçando.

Funny how a great company is being so stubborn and turning it’s back on what developers and customers are asking from it.

Nokia needs to create THE Android that will blow the iPhone out of the water. Nokia is always very innovative in hardware, it’s time they admit nobody wants their software and let us do this for them.

We’re already building for Android, please give that great phone we’re all waiting for.

You don’t need to change your entire line, just do one great phone and see how it goes.