Symbian^4 makes video debut, fails to wow
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 26th 2010 8:11AM
posted February 26th 2010 8:11AM
posted February 26th 2010 8:11AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
@cherryboom Christ, why don't you just leave then????
Seriously, go.
@N900
Judging by your name, I'll assume you're in the know.
Isn't Symbian just a kernel? Kinda like various *nix distros are? If that's the case, why not just develop a new window manager/environment/whatever it's called over Symbian^4?
We still haven't seen anything if this is the case. The article about someone running an ungodly amount of applications at once proved to me Symbian is capable of powerful things. They just need someone to come in and develop an awesome layer over their code.
@BigJayDogg3 .. You know who has an amazing OS that also runs on Linux. *Cough* Palm *Cough*.
@BigJayDogg3
Symbian^4 IS the new the new environment on top of Symbian.
@BigJayDogg3 Oh..what? My reply was to cherryboom's comment lampooning Engadget for no apparent reason. It got deleted and I ended up here so....
I want a vagina clock!!!
Are you listening android??
@tehslax
lol
@snkaniff different font? is this a fake?
@tehslax
A highly detailed vagina clock at that. O_O
@tehslax It could be done. All you need is for you or someone else to design a widget that you can get on the Android market. Nice
@tehslax just what we need is pathetic people tryin to fuck there vagina clock.....so where can I get one!!!
@tehslax No wonder chicks are often late!
How they see the time their clock if its in their pants?
@tehslax I love my vaginas, but I don't want to look at wet roast beef when I want to know what time it is.
ahahaha the vagina clock!
Symbian will have to do a lot better than this "me-too" interface if it wants any chance at regaining its lost marketshare. Frankly, I won't be sad to see it go.
@tonicboy They'd be pretty happy if they'd manage to keep their current 40% share...
@tonicboy Actually I think they will be able to keep a lot of their market share with this. I think of Nokia as a kind of Toyota of the mobile phone world. Other companies are more like sleek Ferraris or rugged Humvees. But Nokia is grey and bland, kind of like Toyota. And there's a reason Toyota and Nokia are the largest single manufacturers of cars and cellphones. Their middle-of-the-road-ness makes them accessible to everyone. Anyone can use a Nokia. And so, anyone will be able to use this interface. (Okay, maybe not my grandma, but you get my point.) This is one of the things that make Nokia so big.
@tonicboy
Me too?! Who are they copying?? This has elements of Maemo/MeeGo, which is by design, since they run the same apps. MeeGo is a Nokia project, so its expected. Is it copying when you originate something?
When will Android and Apple copy Nokia? Oh yeah, they still are, only they're behind feature wise...
@tonicboy nokia's smart phone marketshare went up by 3% according to engadget's post a few days ago. and as far as UI goes, i think symbian has never been hot for being the prettiest operating system, it's just always been sturdy and dependable. the toyota comparison is pretty fitting, if a bit crude :P
@christexaport .. what a joke. Symbian has nothing on Android or even the iPhone. Symbian^4 was supposed to be the amazing Nokia OS of the future. Screw that. Maemo is.
Oh and let's talk about Nokia functionality. On my iPhone I have a Salesforce app, Basecamp app, Oracle eBusiness app, VNC app, Skype app, LinkedIn app, Facebook app, Travel apps e.g. Tube maps etc. If I was on Android I would have a ridiculous amount of tech and engineering apps.
Sorry but Nokia is the one playing catch up.
@christexaport
If you can't see what's "me-too", you've been asleep the last three years. The homescreen which can be slid left/right is straight from iPhone, the widgets are straight from Android/TouchWiz. The entire paradigm is so 2008. And if you're going to argue that there's only so many ways to skin a cat, I think the boys in Redmond would have a word or two with you. The fact is, there are very few people who switch to Nokia because of Symbian. They switch to Nokia because they like the phones, and the phones come with Symbian. But now in this day and age of iPhone, Android and now WinPhone7, consumers are getting very savvy and understand that the OS plays an important part in the user experience. It's a much more competitive market and Symbian can't afford to be one-step behind (from what I'm seeing, they're actually 3 years behind). You can make as many Toyota analogies as you want, but that's the same thing that Palm was saying when they were firmly on top of the market.
@tonicboy cmon nokia. ditch symbian. buy palm. save webOS.
@Flobin
Except that Toyota makes decent cars. They stand out in their reliability (except for their recent mishap). Nokia, on the other hand, just make masses of plastic. They really don't stand out in anything, except for success in emerging markets.
@brrip You need to reread the article, their marketshare dropped by 5.5% in the smartphone market and 1.8% in the overall handset market.
Thank god for Win7's screen orientation option, I would hate to watch videos sideways. Not that these videos were worth the effort.
Did anyone see anything new here? At all? Except for a 'concept' video of things that have existed forever? Seriously, this stuff is so shameful...
@crowl oh? my bad then!
@tonicboy Revolutionary products come only so many times until they reach a limit. The car analogy is actually a good example of that. The car has been a revolutionary invention only ONCE, when Ford started Mass Producing it (it wasn't even the car itself, but the availability for everyone).
It still has 4 wheels with the driver sitting in front, with the engine at the front 98% of the times. Then we've seen some awsome EVOLUTIONARY milestones, like retractable 3-point seatbelts, automatic shift, diesel engines, in-car media and navigation, assisted parking, remote controlling of all sorts, etc...
The iphone was revolutionary because because a technological breakthrough, touch screens. It was, like ford, the first to have a mainstream product to appeal to the masses. But it had an advantange over everubody else: The built their mobile unit from scratch based on touch technology.
Nokia (along with Motorola) INVENTED and implemented cellular communications technology. They were the first and they built their empires around it. Apple was a wake up call and a breath of fresh air to the mobile industry.
Just a year ago, Motorola was on the verge of dissapearing, like Palm. They were slowly dying like a frog on increasingly warmer water. They responded to apple's poke. And where was nokia? continuing to be #1 in the mobile industry.
Of course they have taken a while to get up to speed, and they won't make any revolutionary products anymore. Nobody can, Androis wasn't revolutionary either, just the concept of and open OS and the possibilities it brought to the table.
Look up for my comments and read what I wrote about Nokia Tech support and tell me how Apple or Google match up to that Globally.
In the end, Symbian won't be revolutionary, just evolved enough to focus on the real competitive advantages of nokia.
@Eclectico69 Sorry for all the typos. I didn't spell check before submitting.
@tonicboy And thats why they have MeeGo now...
What you Nokia detractors fail to realize in the business (Hello people, its a business.. Nokia is not here to satisfy your fantasy of a tranny phone), is that this implementation of touchscreen and (supposedly) speed is more than enough for the 90% of the world... And that what they want.
MeeGo came to compete in the high end market...
You people never read the business side of it right? Needs to be "flashy" and have an apple logo so you can walk around the campus showing "how cool this phone mommy gave me is"...
Business people...
@tonicboy
Do you seriously think that Nokia would show the revolutionary UI aspects (in case they had any) one year before the release of Symbian^4 so that the competitors could copy them?
@tonicboy People gives way too much importance on the pizzazz of the UI. There's just so many ways you can switch between homescreens. Oh, maybe they should animate the transition as if you were turning a cube. Big deal!
Sometimes, some of the more "innovative" (and USEFUL) changes are not apparent in a minute-long video.
Besides, it's roughly a year away from release.
@Eclectico69
"In the end, Symbian won't be revolutionary, just evolved enough to focus on the real competitive advantages of nokia."
Which are? Just the support you mention? Or the market share right now? Neither will be enough to stay ahead in an increasingly critical market. It might slow down their descent, though compared to the car market, people switch phones much more often.
Now consider that nokia isn't very strong on the smartphone market yet, where others have already succeeded to gain bigger audiences. And more and more people are switching from conventional cell phones to smartphones and you'll see that the danger of a decline in market share is obviously there.
@BrightSilence
"Now consider that nokia isn't very strong on the smartphone market yet, where others have already succeeded to gain bigger audiences."
Nokia IS strong on the smartphone market, maybe not in the US but elsewhere. Please, see the numbers. And Nokia's got a big audience thanks to their many different models for different people, so Symbian's strong at least in the non-touchscreen market atm.
"Which are? Just the support you mention? Or the market share right now? Neither will be enough to stay ahead in an increasingly critical market."
Well, they are for example the best cameras in the market (Zeiss optics, pixels aren't everything, optics are even more important) and free navigation in dozens of countries. The CWM must help Nokia too?
@taligent "Symbian has nothing on Android or even the iPhone... ...On my iPhone I have a ...Skype app"
My nokia 5800 has a useful front-facing camera for the video skype app. Just saying.
@BrightSilence
"Now consider that nokia isn't very strong on the smartphone market yet"
Huh? Which planet are you on?
@galois "Do you seriously think that Nokia would show the revolutionary UI aspects (in case they had any) one year before the release of Symbian^4 so that the competitors could copy them?"
Ummm.... what's there to copy?
@svens
I have to correct myself, I meant to say they aren't that big in the high end smartphone segment. To me their OS seems to lag behind a bit. And most phones hardware are mid range, which is probably awesome for most people right now.
I googled camera phones in response to your post and most websites seem to point to samsung devices. (probably specific ones, because the one I own right now sucks when it comes to the camera) Sony Ericsson is mentioned as well. But I only saw one nokia phone listed as a good camera phone (N97). I'm not saying they have bad cameras, but the web doesn't seem to agree they are the best. Which in my eyes seems to fit the Nokia strategy of being good at mid range devices. My worries for Nokia lie in the fact that the future mid range is the current high end... and I think learning from that right now will keep you ahead of the game.
Now I'm a gadget nerd and looking at the high end devices and for me personally Nokia is getting completely out of sight.
@sonola777 Maybe stuff like the power and versatility of Maemo.
@taligent said:
"what a joke. Symbian has nothing on Android or even the iPhone. Symbian^4 was supposed to be the amazing Nokia OS of the future. Screw that. Maemo is."
Care to elaborate? Because neither Android nor iPhone OS has a feature Symbian lacks, yet I can name a few from Symbian devices 4 years ago those two lack. Voting down comments is fine for those that have little experience with smartphones, but I don't see anything more than empty boasts and rhetoric. Feed me facts.
"Oh and let's talk about Nokia functionality. On my iPhone I have a Salesforce app, Basecamp app, Oracle eBusiness app, VNC app, Skype app, LinkedIn app, Facebook app, Travel apps e.g. Tube maps etc. If I was on Android I would have a ridiculous amount of tech and engineering apps."
Apps, you say... You know why you have so many? Because Apple's crippled browser negates common web access to tons of apps and content viewable free of charge from the Nokia Webkit browser with Flash support.. When the desktop page works so well, even on EDGE, apps aren't as necessary.
There are apps for Salesforce, Facebook, and such, but they aren't as necessary as they are on devices without Flash. And nothing is unique in those OSes that prevents many apps from running on ANY other OS. Many apps stopped Symbian development in anticipation of S^4 and the move to Qt. Development has picked back up, especially because of MeeGo/Maemo. Look at the member companies of the Symbian Foundation for yourself.
As for VNC on Symbian, I've been doing that since 2006, and you think its cutting edge? Symbian started this whole always connected thing, and networking and media sharing is the OS' forte. Maybe you should try a modern Symbian device to see why the really smartphone savvy markets like UK, Germany, Italy, etc ALL prefer Symbian 3 to 1 or better vs any other OS. I'm sure there's aternatives for the top twenty apps on most platforms anyway. Its not about the skin, its the bones...
"Sorry but Nokia is the one playing catch up."
Yeah. You're right. They lead every market but the small US, but they must catch up to...who? Their 2006 glory days? Stay tuned.
@BrightSilence
I think that what we're looking at isn't the current high-end, but the future mid-range products: as touch screens get cheaper, fewer devices will ship without a touch screen that will be no more expensive than a Nokia phone is today. That's the phone this OS is for, I think: not the expensive Droid or iPhone, but the inexpensive touch-screen phone to be.
The reason that I think Nokia will continue to succeed will not be because they have the best OS on the best hardware: it will be because they have a good enough OS on good enough hardware at a price people will be more than willing to pay for a phone. This has always been the case here in the UK thus far, and I think this strategy will continue. On the other hand, Android and iPhone OS will continue to improve in terms of features and functionality, which will very likely come at a cost when it comes to lowest required hardware or battery life. Android and iPhone OS will always be the high-end OSes, and will likely always be coupled with high-end hardware, and unless this changes (which I know certainly won't be the case for the iPhone), then Nokia will continue to produce the de-facto phone that people (in the UK) buy.
@BrightSilence
samsung makes crappy high megapixel cameraphones... nokia is a good camera phone... the reason my old lg dare's 3.2 shneider kreuznach camera is better than my droids 5.0 megapixel one is because of the optic...
@BrightSilence
what part of "Symbian is for the low to midrange (even though it out-features the competition) with some high end models, and Maemo is the choice for the higher end (and mops the floor with any smartphone OS on the market)" did you miss??
A high end Symbian device will have a dedicated GPU, and none of the current ones do. There hasn't been a true high end Symbian device since the N95 series, which is why most of the die hard geeks are restless. But we'll see a return in the fall season.
But seriously, all you iPhone, WebOS, and Android lovers, try comparing your high end devices (Nexus One, Milestone, iPhone 3GS, Pre) with the high end Nokia device (N900), instead of the midrange fair that cost 30%-70% less and match them all feature for feature. When you compare expensive devices to the lower range Symbian devices, its just not fair.
@e1212 good now you and the three other users of that phone can video talk to each other, just sayin
@BrightSilence
Well, Nokia does have quite a few good camera phones; N97, N900, N89, and even the ancient N95. All of them have exellent Zeiss optics but only 5Mp cameras (N89 has 8mp). Samsung is trying to get their cameras sound good with their 10 mp but it's not everything. For example, I get better pics with my 6 mp Nikon D40 than with my small 10 mp camera. And it's all because of the optics.
And I don't think their OSs are lagging behind, they may not have all the cool eyecandy iPhone or Android has, but the usability is still quite good. And Maemo's/MeeGo's in it's own class.
I think the most ridiculous thing about iPhone OS is that is doesn't have multitasking, a feature Nokia's had since 2004!
I mus really say, this does not fail at the WoW point (like Vista did), this does just simply FAIL.
@tonicboy
Forget that this is a me-too of Android and Apple. SPB Software house has been producing skins for WinMo that have this functionality for, I would guess, three+ years.
But there is power in being me-too, or a close follower. If you have a strong market position (in with Nokia) and good momentum (as Symbian does), it may be good enough just to keep up with the competition. It is when you are a large step behind that you lose customers.
It's clearly a bigger leap from S60 than Symbian ^3 was, and yet, somehow, Symbian ^3 seemd far better...
Either way, sorry Symbian but it's still not enough to make me re-think moving away from your platform next purchase :(
@JayTBennett i'd put that down to the fact that symbian^3 actually looks finished, whereas this video makes symbian^4 look like a 5kb demo that you could install as a sample python/pt demonstration on your phone. i don't think they should have bothered releasing this video.
@JayTBennett
Both must die immediately. What an effing waste of time.
@bergwitz Like you and your comment...