AT&T officially welcomes Symbian S60 back with Nokia 6650
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 13th 2008 11:28AM
posted Nov 13th 2008 11:28AM
[Via phonescoop]
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looks like Motorola W370
Look! It has a screen! It looks like an iPhone!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111one
ROFLSTMAOOOOOOOOADLJFLI%)#()$!!!!!!!!
Well, it looks like a revamped Razr with a better OS. That'd be a nice freebie phone on contract.
While I'll be Lowest Ranked in a matter of seconds, and despite the massive developer support - I'd like to say that I really hate everything about Symbian.
i wholeheartedly agree... Nokia should just give up and not try to compete with the likes of Windows mobile and Apple osx mobile... these are the mobile Juggernauts...
Always good to be backed up by someone with credibility, like iEye.
I beat you to the lowest rank.
I know I should ignore iEYE, but did he seriously write that Nokia should give it up because Windows and OSX are mobile juggernauts? Yeah, Nokia with 39% of the market should give us to an OS with 1% and 5% of the market.
S60 needs an update (Symbian Foundation is still a year or two out) but Symbian as a whole has penetration and acceptance that Microsoft and Apple can only dream of right now.
JSWinston - funny thing that even the 30-something-% market share argument is looking increasingly weaker. Nokia has a bazillion models, including fantastic low end ones that are sold to every farmer in India - but the iPhone is rolling up the high margin high end market all by itself right now. And that's just one model, and one price point.
Nokia is in serious trouble until they get their software problem under control. They need to ditch Symbian and either develop their own (linux based?) platform, or go with Android. While that's cooking they could bide their time with Win Mobile. The problem is, Nokia do anything that suggests that they are even aware that their software sucks beyond rescue.
Why did AT&T pick this plain Jane instead of the E71, N85 or other high-end model? I can only assume because it doesn't come with WiFi.
I think AT&T still thinks there is a huge market for flip-phones. Think of all the money they made with the Razr.
Or this is the first of a series of subsidised phones from Nokia and is just testing the water before AT&T and Nokia partner to unleash subsidised N and E Series phones on the US?
Because most of nokia's phones cost too much for normal consumers to purchase. They're testing the e71 since upper managements are currently using phone.
Symbian is a good OS it could use a face lift and speed boost. But it has a huge lack of apps ! Im switching to an htc fuze , i hope winmo doesnt suck, ive never been a fan of it
Lack of apps? I'm sure there are at least 10 times more apps to Symbian than any other smartphone OS
Actually I've to agree. S60 apps are a bit sparse compared to what is available for WinMob. Having said that I don't regret switching to S60 one bit. The only downside is you need to get your application signed, or sign it yourself. Still better than a restrictive model championed by other companies.
My favourite is Viewranger a topography mapping program that uses actual OS maps.
Forgive my uninformed American brain, but is this a smartphone? Are all Symbian S60 phones considered smartphones by default? Can they all use the same applications? Having never seen a Symbian phone with my own eyes I don't really know anything about it.
Yes, Symbian is a smartphone OS that allows to install native apps, handles multitasking & other smartphone stuff like copy & paste.
And yes, they basically all support the same apps.
first: iEye nokia still has the number 1 spot in smartphones and has it by a pretty wide margin
second: there is easily 10x the apps for s60 then there is for any other phone os
third: chefgon, the idea of smart phone vs dumb phone has been blurred a lot. personally i dont see this phone or an iphone as a "smart phone" but there are s60 "smart" phones such as the n and e series. i say if you can tether with it then its a smart phone. but thats just me.
fourth: woohoo. s60 is back. hopefully this is a trial run and then they'll be bringing over some of the top guns. i love my n95-4 and e71-2 and want to share that love with the stupid american public.
I totally agree about the tethering thing. 100%
I can, and have tethered a 3 skypephone, which is hardly what you would call a smartphone, especially as if only cost 50 quid PAYG.
word.
Smartphone is a pretty difficult thing to define, now that I think about it. Way back in the 90s when I first heard the term, it meant a cellphone with PDA functions built in. That encompasses roughly 100% of the cell phone market now. Then it meant phones with email. Then it meant phones with web browsers. The low-end keeps catching up so the high-end needs to keep redefining what smartphone means.
I guess I'd consider a smartphone to be any phone with an OS that you can freely develop your own app for. If I can get an SDK for free without sending in a developer application, then distribute that app as I see fit, then that phone would fall under the general blanket of "unlimited expandability" because anybody can make any program without permission or approval just like a computer.
But even that definition isn't 100%, because where does that leave the iPhone? It's still considered to be one of the most high-end phones available by many people, but it doesn't quite meet any of my requirements. The phone hardware and software itself can easily meet the requirements in theory, but it's Apple's distribution rules that hold it back.
Then what about when you jailbreak it? It's the same hardware running the same OS, but suddenly it meets every smartphone requirement. Can you really make the leap from Feature Phone to Smartphone with such a simple circumvention of corporate policy?
From there the definition gets even murkier, because there are tons of low-end handsets that have a J2ME virtual machine, and you can technically develop and distribute J2ME apps like Opera Mini freely, though installing them may or may not require hacking or unlocking.
Maybe we just need to abandon this term all together. Smartphone doesn't really appear to mean anything.
Really, I can tether with my Razr v3xx easier and faster (3.6Mb Hsdpa) than my Nokia N75 (UMTS 365Kb).
hmm...
Still can't beat my 6205 Nokia... :D
HAS NO BATMAN LOGO.
that is until you have to send it to turkey or face a lawsuit
Bu...Buuut...
BATMANPHONE... D:>
This phone has it's market. There are plenty of people that need some aspects of a smartphone without going all the way blackberry or PDA WinMO.
Nokia does very well in making phones for this segment. In the US, s60 in the PDA phone market isn't as big as in Europe.
This phone also has a HUGE battery. Should give some nice talk time, even on the 3G network...
My nokia N95 with S60 may not be the most sexy phone, but damn if it
has not been the most useful phone ever. Yes, more then the iphone.
Yes, the n95 (8Gb) is a fantastic device, although mine has picked up a few too many scratches for my liking, and the gloss black is an absolute fingerprint magnet.
Agreed. I have my gripes about the N95, and it's certainly one ugly-ass brick, but it does everything I've wanted and then some. It's great having a decent camera on you at all times, really comes in handy.
If it had a qwerty keyboard I think I'd be in heaven.
and it would be crippled beyond the usable range by AT&T, just like the E62...
yeah, i'm actually one of those guys that bought the N75. Although a little bulky, it got me addicted to symbian. Granted i would've preferred to see ATT pick up a nice N/E series, this is a phone i could consider when the contract on my N75 runs out
It's too bad AT&T isn't selling the bronze version too. Nice phone. Very sturdy and well built (had one disassembled today).
If I were to buy a flip phone, this would be it.
I totally agree. Flips are, in theory, great phones. Nokia was late to that party but they've done a good job. Stick in a 5mp camera module (I know, too thick), wifi & xenon flash & I'd definitely give it a 2nd look.
We have had this phone for almost a week in our stores. This phone would be killing it if it didn't run Symbian. Symbian is too complicated for your average customer. They prefer the dumbed down crap that is on most LG and Samsung phones. This phone is pretty sweet though. If I needed a flip phone this would most certainly be it right now.
Hm. No wifi?