First Symbian Foundation handsets arriving in 2010

Oh c'mon, you didn't think all these global players could just toss their eggs into one basket and pop out a new handset next week, did you? All sarcasm aside, those stoked about the possibilities of the newly formed Symbian Foundation will be waiting a good while before an actual handset is loosed on the world, or so Kai Öistämö says. Said exec has been quoted as saying that the first mobiles "bearing the new platform" wouldn't appear until 2010, which should be about the same time that the platform "has been fully open-sourced." For more of Öistämö's comments, head on down to the read link; for the nearest box of tissues... well, you're on the own there.

[Elisha Adeagbo @ Jun 24th 2008 6:27PM]

o cmon! that's way too long

[Mark Anderson @ Jun 24th 2008 6:42PM]

Sweet. Just in time for my N96 contract to expire.

[Jubei @ Jun 24th 2008 6:44PM]

Steve Jobs did say that the iPhone with its excellent OS is years ahead of the competition. It's not surprising to hear about Nokia attempt to "me too" the iPhone, and that development of their doppleganger will be several years in the making.

[Mark Anderson @ Jun 24th 2008 6:50PM]

*facepalm*

[silverblackvoid @ Jun 24th 2008 7:45PM]

you've no idea what you're talking about.

[hugoliva @ Jun 24th 2008 8:46PM]

What a douche ignorant fanboy. Since when is the iPhone's OS opensource?

[Jubei @ Jun 24th 2008 9:07PM]

iPhone is not open source. Open source for your Nokia will never surpass in quality and functionality of the iPhone with OSX. Clearly this is Nokia intentions. Rather than accepting the fact, you resort to name calling and insults. Is this how you Nokia users react when presented with a valid point? Anger and name calling? Interesting. Perhaps anger management therapy is required for you people.

[nikster @ Jun 24th 2008 9:08PM]

Well it's obvious that the iPhone OS is years ahead of the competition. Nokia et al just didn't have the desire, the ideas, or the motivation to create something great.

Now that they are getting slaughtered in the market by the iPhone, they are scrambling to catch up. It's a good thing for everybody. But it's not easy to do. Writing good software is not a matter of how much money you can throw at it, it's more about management understanding software. And it takes time.

I and many others were pretty disappointed with the stagnation of development in Symbian long before the iPhone came out. WinMo ruled itself out by using the wrong metaphor from the very beginning - it looked like what it was: A crude attempt of leveraging the Windows monopoly into the mobile market. Linux was forever promising but not appearing in actual mobiles. Symbian was forever stuck in 1998 and simply not getting any better.
Then the iPhone arrived and, at least on technical merit, made them all look like idiots. If it had not been for the greedy and self-defeating sales approach by Apple, they'd by now be selling more than any other smart phone.

[t3_slider @ Jun 24th 2008 10:17PM]

Getting slaughtered in the market? Go into a corner and die. Symbian has 60% of the installed user base in smartphones. The iPhone, Palm, Windows Mobile, etc. ALL share that remaining 40%. Symbian is leagues ahead of the iPhone in terms of use. It's not even CLOSE to being slaughtered.

Fanboys, please unite on a cliff -- and then jump. Every f*cking article. DIE.

[macserv @ Jun 25th 2008 12:18AM]

You can mod him down all you want, but Nikster is absolutely right. He's right about how much effort it takes to make great software, and his points:

iPhone is way ahead.
Symbian is a great OS.
Symbian has never had a decent UI layer atop it.
iPhone makes everything else look awful.

...are (arguably) right on the money. That said, I don't think iPhone has destroyed anyone yet, but it will, especially if change from these major players doesn't happen until 2010. Talk about too little, too late... if they're banking on this effort to reap rewards, they're doomed.

Also, I agree that Windows Mobile doesn't do a particularly good job of catering to mobile-specific needs, and it isn't evolving nearly fast enough to stay competitive on its own merits, but I don't agree with the inferred notion that it is just slapping Windows in a smaller box... CE/WinMo was written from scratch for embedding in small devices, and there are a whole lot of development man-years behind that OS. Gotta give credit where it's due.

[thedesolate1 @ Jun 25th 2008 12:58AM]

Yes "All Your Phone are Belong to Apple" now shut the fuck up already..... give it a rest nobody gives a shit about your proprietary soft/hardware including, ATT toting, and DRM ridden Iphone. Its an excellent phone I will give you that but there is a market that it will not tap so stop compairing it to any of the Open OS's and quit all this "All Your Phone Are Belong To Us" bullshit.

[Jubei @ Jun 25th 2008 1:24AM]

A quick review of this exchange does not bode well for Nokia when gauging the type of customers they represent. So far, profanity, anger, denial and general lack of knowledge beyond their device seems to be the norm for this group. Confronted with a simple fact, these users react angrily. Like a two year old having a tantrum. If I were a Nokia representative, I would be aghast at these users. Actually I would be downright embarrassed. It took Apple to wake their collective lazy brains up. Instead of creating, they did what the other "me too" company did. Simply buy what you are unable to create yourself.

[Pdexter @ Jun 25th 2008 5:07AM]

So 40% of this globes cell phone users include that to that type of group?
That comment is funny on that if anything it's the US consumers that don't know what kind of devices there are.
UK has all brands and probally most competitive cell phones market in world and they chose 2 years old Nokia smartphone before iphone.

I think that tell enough. Iphone is superb product, but it's iritating to hear these Apple fanatics that just don't know about other devices(Apple=USA). N95 isn't for every one, but iphone ain't either.

[Justin @ Jun 24th 2008 7:03PM]

WinMo7, PalmOS, BlackBerry, OpenMoko, OS X, Symbian..

I'm waiting for Android, period.

[microlith @ Jun 24th 2008 7:35PM]

Of all those, the most open is OpenMoko. And that only on the Neo hardware platforms.

Everything else is and can be locked down in some fashion.

[ThePerfectCompanion @ Jun 24th 2008 7:07PM]

At this point I don't care...just want a phone that looks awesome, allows to surf the web pretty damn fast, has excellent coverage, and good texting and picture taking capablities...

[Hunt @ Jun 24th 2008 7:08PM]

Word

[ThePerfectCompanion @ Jun 24th 2008 7:15PM]

And by good texting I mean I want a touch screen as well as a keypad.

HTC Touch Pro is a the top of my list since the 3G iPhone is a big letdown in my opinion. Only prob with the Pro is the screen is a lil small when compared to the iPhone.

I was just in Best Buy Mobile trying out the Instinct...internet goes very slow on it. Maybe its just my location? I'm located in Raleigh, NC. Screen is a lil too small for my liking. And the touch screen capacity is very slow to respond.

I hit several buttons with my finger and it took like way longer for the Instinct to load the next page than the iPhone.

Its got potential as an iPhone killer but it just didn't live up to my expectations to be honest.

So its up to the HTC Touch Pro and the LG Dare...

[ThePerfectCompanion @ Jun 24th 2008 7:15PM]

And by good texting I mean I want a touch screen as well as a keypad.

HTC Touch Pro is a the top of my list since the 3G iPhone is a big letdown in my opinion. Only prob with the Pro is the screen is a lil small when compared to the iPhone.

I was just in Best Buy Mobile trying out the Instinct...internet goes very slow on it. Maybe its just my location? I'm located in Raleigh, NC. Screen is a lil too small for my liking. And the touch screen capacity is very slow to respond.

I hit several buttons with my finger and it took like way longer for the Instinct to load the next page than the iPhone.

Its got potential as an iPhone killer but it just didn't live up to my expectations to be honest.

So its up to the HTC Touch Pro and the LG Dare...

[Elisha Adeagbo @ Jun 24th 2008 7:15PM]

...to your mother

[Frankie @ Jun 24th 2008 7:21PM]

This is why apple need to make more open flash platform to the iPod because you can'tnot compete with Apple Androids or even motorola. The openness of google and symbian is better than closed licenseing platform. Look at Open Document format. It beat microsft format even though they both did XML.

[Stevo @ Jun 24th 2008 8:05PM]

Isn't a two pane mac ad on Engadget kind of preaching to the choir?

[phanbouy @ Jun 24th 2008 9:14PM]

Not judging by the 85% hardcore windows readership from what i can tell.

guess people need to defend what they use against all alternatives.

[Sadude @ Jun 24th 2008 11:00PM]

iphone conversations are always funny...it seems like a company that has a mere 5% of the market has someone conquered the world. the iphone is truly cool and revolutionary but the very fact that the ATT plans only offer 200 messages tell you that this is not for your everyday user.

Everyday users text like mad and new functionality. We need new apps which is driven by open source. Even winmo phones have more apps than the iphone.

Nokia is a king amongst the world, apple share in contrast to that nearly insignificant and irrelevant.

Nokia's symbian attack plan here is quite simple. We know the hype that google brings and nokia cannot just sit there and hope to stay ahead. it is reacting to a changing market.

[eurobloke @ Jun 25th 2008 1:39AM]

Totally agree with you on here, people here seem to forget the iPhone 1G was a big flop outside the US. In the UK, only 50,000 phones were sold, which is peanuts compared to the big (contract) phones such as the N95, the BlackBerry, & LG Viewty. Hence, the large number of Symbien phones out there.

Also people here seem to forget about the most amount of mobiles sold in Europe and the world are pay-as-you-go, and not contract by about 75% to 25%. Most people who you see in the stores touching the iPhone, are only in it for the free web access to check the football scores or their Facebook pages.

[hiko36 @ Jun 25th 2008 2:24AM]

Symbian Foundation... that sounds so... ominous...

[Mr D @ Jun 30th 2008 4:06AM]

iPhone is far away from any 5%. They are closer to 0.5% of the global world-market..

Yeah, they have a great first impression but when go in-depth you tend to get disappointed - at least I did. You can not even forward a simple SMS, which makes me believe iPhone has been designed by americans for US market and judging for above, it seems to be a correct assumption. US has always lagged behind in how to use a mobile phone and many still see the mobile phone as an extension of their fixed office phone to be used in the car only.

Another great thing but also annoying. You can use iTunes to create your own ringtones, from your own music. But you still have to pay $0.99 for it if you want it on your iPhone.