NSeries Nokias Say Goodbye to Symbian, Hello to Maemo
Here’s a bold statement: Symbian S60 is simply not good enough. I’m sure that many Nokia owners and analysts who know that Symbian currently holds around 50% of the smartphone OS market would disagree. But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the new generation of smartphones – primarily Androids, the iPhone, and webOS based devices – are simply better than Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile (up to) 6.5 when it comes to doing what the today’s users want from a smartphone: browsing the web, using Facebook and Twitter, gaming, and finding simple apps that will satisfy their specific needs.
And now, at the official N900 meet-up in London, Nokia has pretty much admitted it. Nokia’s NSeries devices – i.e. most of their high-end smartphones – will all be powered by Linux-based Maemo by 2012.
While this doesn’t mean that Symbian is going away completely, it’s a major focus shift from a platform that Nokia has been pushing for so long. Nokia has probably recognized that Symbian will not be able to compete with Android (Android) and the iPhone in the foreseeable future, so they’ve decided to build their own Android (Maemo, just like Android, is Linux (linux)-based) and push their flagship devices on it, while Symbian will probably keep powering the video and photo focused X and E-series devices.
Furthermore, Nokia will first run its Maemo app portal, Maemo Select, alongside Ovi Store (Symbian app store), but plans to merge them into one later on. While we’re thrilled to see more Nokias on the powerful Maemo platform, running two mobile smarpthone OSs and two separate app stores will definitely cause confusion to the customers.
NSeries Nokias Say Goodbye to Symbian, Hello to Maemo
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