Flashback: Symbian Belle almost caught up to Android, but it was too late
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- Swaraj7
- U{w
- 04 Dec 2023
Softwares aside , if nokia technologies still made phone , whether it's Android or windows or meegoo , we wouldn't be stuck at one boring form factor . That's for sure .
And phones wouldn't be as fragile as they are these days . (Sometime I wonder why nobody questions the exposed rounded edges of phone displays ... Seems like deliberate)
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- Dr. Stephen Strange
- uuW
- 04 Dec 2023
Mobilemaster, 04 Dec 2023Well it is true that Elop was the one who killed not only N... moreI always felt that even after adopting windows platform, they could have continue Symbian for low end phones, esp. non touch [just like dumb phones, always better than none Os dumb phone] and Meego for low and mid range touch phones.
Issue here was intentions of Elop rather than actual potential of the systems. Elop tried and succeeded to kill Nokia.
I still feel need of Symbian as semi-smart phone for key board enabled phones. And they really had better cameras for that time.
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- Stoon
- rXK
- 04 Dec 2023
Moore's law has its limits and will be obsolete in 2036. We are now in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle !
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- dm29
- L1M
- 04 Dec 2023
Hindsight give us the answer: Nokia should have stick with Symbian - Meego. Windows Phone sales were so bad its about impossible to fare worse.
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- Anonymous
- KRW
- 04 Dec 2023
Anonymous, 04 Dec 2023Nobody can beat Android. Not even childish iOS.Both android and ios have become a very mature OS .. it just a matter of preference.
Nokia could play catch up at that time and reach the same level of maturity as android and ios but they give up as it might require a lot of resources.
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- Lewen
- xPP
- 04 Dec 2023
atichko, 04 Dec 2023I was very fond of the Symbian Belle OS. They should never ... moreFundamentally,all OS is just a skin to any set or bundle to run basic to advance computational functionality..just privatized and commercialized..all you need is just hardware to run it onto making the tech businesses of ours today,i love the symbian OS or Blackberry for mobile devices and how theyre just ahead of their time,imagine after 12 years,android particularly is catching up with customization feature from symbian or like how both iOS & Android's gesture navigation from Blackberry 10 OS,of course, exept not for better optimization and avancement of both software and hardware we have today..but i would agree,just like id hope for a more unified linux,and more developed Linux rather than having just many distros
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- Hemedans
- fuZ
- 04 Dec 2023
Anonymous, 04 Dec 2023Neither could symbian match Android nor can Nokia match up ... moreYeah that's why all major Oems lineup to establish R&D in Finland and use Nokia Ex employees, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, BBK etc all of them use Nokia leftovers to innovate their devices.
Until Nokia sold it's Device no phone came close to Nokia offerings hardware wise, just look at Lumia x20 lineup from Lumia 520 which had best low-end specs of that time to Lumia 920 which shape current smartphone, find any phone in 2023 you will see it follow trend from Lumia 920 like Qi wireless charge, faster refresh rate display, focus in Zoom, Low light photography and OIS, computational photography etc.
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- Mobilemaster
- 0C9
- 04 Dec 2023
NConPep, 04 Dec 2023Yes and no. I would say No. Why ? After new CEO of Nokia S... moreWell it is true that Elop was the one who killed not only Nokia, but Symbian OS and Meego OS too.
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- Aan2007
- nxd
- 04 Dec 2023
as someone who worked on Nokia projects at that time and specifically on Belle it was from the first moment obvious to me Elop is Microsoft mole to run Nokia down so they can buy it for peanuts, it's shame the shareholders are bunch of old morons and haven't see such obvious thing, if we switched to Meego or Android much faster Nokia could still be one of the market leaders, specially if switched to Android with Nokia phone quality and design instead of going for Windows Mobile everyone knew from beginning will fail
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- Bob
- sX5
- 04 Dec 2023
i didn't take to this version i had to put my e7 back on anna, that to me was the best version.
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- NConPep
- LiH
- 04 Dec 2023
Anonymous, 04 Dec 2023Still have fond memories of Nokia phones. I was still usin... moreYes and no. I would say No. Why ?
After new CEO of Nokia Stephen Elop move from...Microsoft, Nokia stop to be the same company. From a leader and innovator, it became a company that... just collapse.
It was the only company on the market that gave up its own system, but it was also the only one that did not offer Android phones. Eg Samsung have both Android and WP, same LG etc.
Even if they were planning to switch to Windows Phone - which was stupid, it was even more stupid to stop sales.
Who will buy your phone if you announce that you will stop developing Symbian ? Nobody. Who will buy your phone if you don't have one of the two most popular systems? Few? WP never even came close to the results of Symbian, Android or... iOS.
Windows Phone may have had a chance, but after many years of development, but this development cost was passed on to Nokia.
How can you give up Symbian, show it as unready, defective, weak, missing apps. options WP when everyone buys Android?
Nokia should have Android phones for a few years just to maintain shares and sales. Especially since Elop kill Symbian and MeeGo. Not only did Elop kill the two OS, but Elop killed sales and revenues, the stock tanked.
Nokia/Elop started firing people, and many important people (Damian Dinning) started leaving when they saw what was happening.
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- Anonymous
- UUK
- 04 Dec 2023
would love to see this series in video format on your YouTube channel
- atichko
- M{V
- 04 Dec 2023
I was very fond of the Symbian Belle OS. They should never have killed it but they should have persisted into developing it further as a fully worthy full touch OS. At least there would have been more choice instead of only Android and iOS. At least Europe would have had it's own independent OS.
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- Anonymous
- 0cB
- 04 Dec 2023
Nobody can beat Android. Not even childish iOS.
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- Jerrey
- t7x
- 04 Dec 2023
If Nokia could just focus on Symbian or better Meego that time then maybe maybe they still exist now. But the bad decision *ahem* Elop *ahem* lead them to Windows OS and now both are part of the past.
Nokia that time have all the resources to build / improve their own OS if they really want to but chose not to and the consequence is very clear today. Sad reality.
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- ravi4ever
- y2g
- 04 Dec 2023
Belle developers reading this article and using the Pointing Leo(Pointing Rick Dalton) meme..
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- Anonymous
- vaS
- 04 Dec 2023
There would be no need to catch up if they only improved the UIQ version instead.
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- Anonymous
- 0p}
- 04 Dec 2023
Still have fond memories of Nokia phones. I was still using a Nokia Symbian phone up to 2014, when everyone had already moved onto iPhones and Android phones.
Nokia responded too slowly to the changes in phone operating systems. Symbian was simply not responsive or fluid enough to compete with iOS or Android. Nokia failed to make improvements to its UI and it became dated and uncompetitive. I knew it was the end for Symbian when I took my wife's hand me down iPhone 5 (She upgraded to iPhone 6) and found that it ran circles around my old phone.
It was with a sigh of relief to see them abandon Symbian. But instead of adopting Android for their phones, they chose to go with Windows. I knew then shenanigans were involved and Elop and MS ended up destroying the company.
Although there are Nokia branded Android phones nowadays, they severely lack the Nokia hardware innovations that characterised their previous phones and what made their phones so great. At least bring back swappable batteries.
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- geney
- IWQ
- 04 Dec 2023
This has always been a great series. Brought back lots of great memories. Awesome
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- Jongjave
- XMF
- 04 Dec 2023
Anonymous, 03 Dec 2023Obviously, it is android. Soon they block android apps,... moreHarmonyOS is not android. HarmonyOS is microkernel OS while Android is macrokernel OS. HarmonyOS use multikernel layer in its system and support AOSP libraries thats why this OS can run android APK. Just becausse harmonyOS can run Android APK it doesn't mean Android. Lol