Developers twitchy as wait for Symbian^3 goes on and on

Nokia's forthcoming N8 smartphone will certainly have market leading hardware specs, but the real challenge for the firm is to convince developers of its software credentials. It is promising improved developer tools, Ovi Store experience and user experience for the N8, drawing on the new open source release of Symbian. But …

[Anonymous Coward]

Too late.

All the Symbian developers have already either moved across to Android / iPhone, or starved to death.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope.

Very few people write apps in Symbian C++ anymore, that's true.

They are now all using standard C++ and QT.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rubbish

iOS is "mature and proven".

This is rubbish. The yanks are *still* adding features that us Europeans have been enjoying for over half a decade and in a half-arsed way at that (e.g. video calling WI-FI only).

I can understand why the blogs in the former colony of Virginia are excited by the iPhone 4 as they had crap phones and networks for years but to call a phone mature when it's features are circa 2007 in Europe at best is a bit of a stretch. It is quite obvious that these "modern" OS are struggling to support these standard features properly and are still heavily in development.

"but a complete reworking of the OS"

Symbian^3 is NOT a complete reworking of the operating system at all. It is a complete reworking of the user interface of the operating system.

You can write something in QT today and it will run in all existing S60, Maemo phones and all future Symbian^3, Symbian^4 and MeeGo phones.

"well established platform, while necessary, is risky."

"Symbian^3 will take at least a year to achieve the same position"

Just as well, that isn't happening and I am afraid iOS and Android are still playing catchup to Symbian which supports all modern standards already while they do not.

BTW, Symbian^4 isn't a new OS either, it will just be a more radical user interface overhaul. Symbian^3 is there to get the existing consumers familiar with a changing experience.

[Alastair 7]

Living in denial

"to call a phone mature when it's features are circa 2007 in Europe at best is a bit of a stretch"

Old argument. I'm no Apple fanboi, but the iPhone IS a great device, and iOS is a great OS. It isn't missing any features anyone cares about- video calling was a total failure. Why prioritise implementing features no-one wants?

"I am afraid iOS and Android are still playing catchup to Symbian which supports all modern standards already while they do not."

Your perspective is far too technical- do you still argue about the superiority of Betamax too? Users don't care about 'modern standards'. They also don't care about OS architecture. They care about features, ease of use and compelling applications. Symbian is falling behind Android and iOS in all those counts.

[Eddy Ito]

I've seen this before

It's almost as if they are waiting to become obsolete so they can do something else. It oddly reminds me of Palm OS.

[Citizen Kaned]

mixed feelings about symbian

we have nokia e72s here at work after having loads of issues with Blackberry server s/w and unreliable htc winmo phones.

these phones are great, but symbian is crap. maybe its the implementation but its very retarded regarding connections.

why do different apps need different connections? thats just batshit insane.

swap a sim with another phone and some deleted connection settings come back!

why so retro? surely just have a connection hierarchy?

wireless

gprs

etc etc

oh, and on the phone you cannot access the ovi store (well, sign up for it) due to someone not thinking about the layout

its great for texts, calling and the basics (far better then iphone, android etc) but lags behind in usability for other stuff.

[Anonymous Coward]

Symbian have 45% of smart phone market, but..

Symbian have 45% of smart phone market, but almost everybody I know with a Symbian phone ALMOST NEVER use any of the 'smart phone' features. I think they are 'smart phones' in name only. I would love to see stats of how many times a Symbian phone connect to the web in the life of the phone - then compare that to iPhone or Android.

[David Beck]

So the "Web" makes a "Smartphone"

I've been wondering, now I know, if you can touch the screen and do web browsing it's a "smartphone".

I suppose my built-in SIP support, DLNA server and client, noise cancelling mic, GPS and off-line mapping, are really just there as add-ons to the Facebook app. My phone has a keyboard and all the other stuff, the least of which I use is the browsing and I don't use the Facebook app at all, so I guess I'm not really using it as a Smartphone. Very happy with a Nokia E55, 100 grams and 5/6 days on a charge with Wifi turned on.

But soooo sad, I can't touch the screen.

[jamie 5]

Symbian has 45% of the smartphone market...

...because Nokia count everything that runs Symbian as a smartphone.