Symbian-Guru shuts down, says Nokia is 'losing hard'

Well, we can't sugar-coat this one -- when a major Nokia / Symbian site like Symbian-Guru decides to close up shop "thanks to Nokia's consistently piss-poor hardware choices and Symbian's lack of ability to even remotely compete in terms of features," there's not much else to say. It sounds like shutting things down was at once both incredibly easy and incredibly hard for site heads Ricky Cadden and Rita El Khoury, who've both penned long letters about their decision -- you can tell both of them remain incredibly passionate about Nokia and Symbian, but that they've been disappointed by mediocre handsets like the N97 one time too many. Better hope Nokia can take that MeeGo for handsets pre-alpha we saw yesterday and whip it into something good, we suppose. You should really hit the source link and read the entire post on Symbian-Guru, but we've collected some choice quotes after the break.

Ricky:

• "I've tried to use all of Nokia's various products and services to the best of my ability, and I just can't do it anymore."
• "I can't continue to support a manufacturer who puts out such craptastic 'flagships' as the N97, and who expects me to use services that even most of Nokia's own employees don't use."
• "After this experience with the Nokia N97, there's simply no way I trust them to not screw up with the N8 – not enough for me to fork over $500 of my own money, at least."
• "Like Android, Symbian Foundation prides itself on being open and free – loudly and oftentimes obnoxiously boasting about how its source code is free for all – despite no one really caring about this, at least in my circle."
• "Both Symbian and Nokia are dying brands in the U.S., if not already dead, and I'm sick and tired of banging the gong alone."
• "Of course I'll still keep my eye on Nokia. If they can put out 2 flagship devices in a row that don't completely suck, I may even give them another chance. I won't hold my breath."
• "To Nokia, you guys are losing. Hard. Wake the hell up. Doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results is the definition of insanity."
• "I sincerely hope that the upper brass at Nokia starts listening to the folks who are putting in extra time and effort – these folks know what's going on, and like I did originally, simply want to see Nokia succeed."

Rita:

• "I swear I could get a VISA, buy an airplane ticket, travel to Texas and talk to Ricky in person before Nokia Messaging for IM loads and opens a conversation with him on my N97 Mini."
• "But honestly, how can you blame outside developers when Nokia themselves can't seem to pull through a decent application?"
• "What good does it do me, as a user, if you have 40 or 50 or 60 % marketshare when you fail to gain any developer traction?"
• "Where are the games that make me pop my eyes in awe? The N8 will get Angry Birds. Big whoop. It took me all of 2 days to finish all levels of Angry Birds on my iPod Touch and you know what? When I was done, I moved on to the next game. Could I say the same about the N8?"
• "I can't evangelize a platform when I'm no longer 100% convinced myself: that would be hypocrisy and I'm not a hypocrite."
• " It had to be done and although it was hard at first, I've now come to terms with the decision."

[boesky Posted Jul 2nd 2010 8:45AM]

Android's ahead of the curve, iOS' trying to keep up, and Symbian is an antique.

[Scorp1us Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:43AM]

What Nokia needs to do now, is ditch the OS and go Android, then provide a Qt version for android, then relaunch MeeGo/whatever-the-hell it-is-this-week or fork Android to a Nokia version that will still give users regular Android apps.

Nokia+Qt: to little too late.

[ecsw Posted Jul 2nd 2010 4:22PM]

I must agree with them both.

N900 is my last try with Nokia. Forget about N8 or n-whatever.
If they can't make N900 better, Nokia is done. PPL around me either want an iPhone or they want Android. I wouldn't bother to show other ppl that I have N900.

So long Nokia, see you in next few years.

[PaCpiS Posted Jul 2nd 2010 7:31PM]

I agree with Ricky, i'm quite frustrated with my N97, now my USB port is almost dead, the GPS signal, too poor and last week the switch key (for locking the screen) just went off... I've brought it to a Nokia Care to repair.
I'm also planning to get a different mobile ( no Nokia anymore, even if i owned many Nokia in the last years)

[YorchArturo Posted Jul 3rd 2010 5:33AM]

I hope MeeGo phones became more impressive.

[Xerxes Posted Jul 3rd 2010 8:44AM]

This is the way that EXACTLY MUST BE. And we expected that. NOKIA IS GOING TO DIE! This is the truth.

[birdhead Posted Jul 4th 2010 5:00PM]

I've been a nokia user for 12yrs, since the Nokia banana phone. Nokia always quote to be a multimedia computer but it has not enable me to perform a task like a computer.

I've just switched to using Motorola XT a week ago. At least Android lets me perform online tasks in html. It makes my online activities easier and more enjoyable. Really disappointed with Nokia these days.

[AwesoMarron Posted Jul 4th 2010 6:55PM]

What Nokia needs to do is two things:

- Stop spawning a new operating system with each phone release. I lost count of how many new systems they got since S60 3rd. The N8 is about to come out with symbian^3 and they're already talking about symbian^4 with "an entirely new user experience" coming out in less than 12 months from now. Why would someone, as a developer, feel motivated to write a fairly sophisticated program for a system that won't be current by this date next year?

- Stop pulling the plug on older systems when it comes to new products. This one comes from me finding out recently that the latest ovi maps are available only to certain models, which do not include the N95 8GB; a perfectly capable hardware that could handle such an application. Trying to force people to upgrade their high-end hardware by pulling the plug on support for new features isn't going to help them keep their customers loyal to the brand.