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Nokia ends talk of Symbian^4, adopts HTML5 in Qt framework
Things are turning upside down in Espoo today. Besides, earnings and reported job cuts of some 1,800 employees, Nokia also announced that it'll be streamlining its development strategy to unify environments for Symbian and MeeGo. Nokia's new approach calls for the adoption of Qt, and only Qt, as its application development framework from today onward. Here's what that means for new N8 owners: You can buy a Nokia smartphone confident that any improvements introduced later to the Symbian platform, such as the user interface, can be made available to download on your device as well. No need to wait for Symbian^4 - the improvements we were planning for Symbian^4 will be introduced as and when they become available. In fact, we will no longer be talking about Symbian^3 or Symbian^4 at all – it will be one constantly evolving and constantly improving platform. Sounds like a smart move to us. After all, it's Symbian's UI, and not the OS, that we have the most trouble with -- an issue that Nokia readily concedes. So the faster they can improve it -- even pieces of it in a continuous evolution of the experience -- the better. Nokia also announced support for HTML5 web content and applications for the Symbian and MeeGo platforms in both Qt and the browser. Click through for the press release and to hear Rich Green, Nokia CTO, discuss the new strategy.
Editorial: Nokia's not going to switch to Android or Windows Phone 7, so stop it already
I've had it. I can't take all this Nokia operating system speculation anymore. The final straw came with a VentureBeat piece citing a "trusted source" that claims "Nokia is now likely to use Windows Phone 7 as an additional platform for its phones." Enough already. Nokia has a strategy and hiring Stephen Elop away from Microsoft's Office team isn't going to change that no matter how much the US media (where Nokia has near zero presence) wishes it were true -- if anything, it's going to accelerate it.
Nokia's app development strategy: Qt, Qt, Qt (video)
Been wondering about Nokia's strategy for conquering the rapidly expanding app space? Great! So were we, which is why we joined up with a recent dev event carried out by the Finnish company for an update on how and where things are going. It's a familiar narrative by this point: Qt is all set to become the way that Nokia-friendly apps are made -- whether it be for Symbian smartphones or MeeGo-powered mobile computers, coffee machines or infotainment consoles. Nokia did stress that its developer workflow has also been streamlined dramatically, and promised coders a better distilled experience that treats their time and money like the valuable commodities that they are. It's an encouragingly frank discussion of where things have gone wrong in the past and how Espoo intends to remedy them in the future, and we've got it all on video for you after the break -- no reading required!
First real Symbian^4 screen shots emerge
We'd argue that the "wow" factor still isn't there quite yet, but we'll admit: Symbian^4 is clearly going to be a bit of a departure from the versions that came before it. The Symbian Foundation has posted the first handful of home screen UI shots on its developer wiki recently showing redesigned widgets, app categories and search, pop-up menus, and a standard-issue numeric touchscreen keypad -- and unlike Nokia's concept videos from before, these are from a real emulator running real code. While MeeGo is still expected to dominate the high end of its range, Nokia's expecting to use Symbian^4 in at least some of its devices by early 2011 -- and knowing how these guys like to go big with global roll-outs spanning tens or hundreds of millions of devices, this is a UI you might end up getting to know extremely well within a year or two.
Gartner: Symbian is 're-arranging the deck chairs,' losing buoyancy fast
We all know that Symbian is still holding the fort as the globe's most widely used mobile OS, but anyone interested in criticizing it nowadays will have to get into a queue. Nick Jones from Gartner is latest to launch a broadside against the apparently complacent market leader, opining that its user experience has been surpassed by iOS and Android, and arguing that future iterations do not promise enough innovation to make the platform stand out. He underpins these observations with his firm's latest estimates, which indicate Symbian's decline in share is accelerating, before positing the idea that the Foundation sets aside some talent for skunkworks projects in order to give itself fallback options should Symbian^4 not be blindingly marvelous. Nick might be going a little overboard with the bleakness of his outlook, but there's no questioning his "Android iceberg" analogy -- if Symbian doesn't find the right course soon, Google might well end up collecting a big chunk of its exasperated users.
Nokia: the fight begins now, Symbian^4 N-Series device later
Nokia's newly appointed Mobile Solutions chief, Anssi Vanjoki, has penned an impassioned post over at Nokia Conversations today where he sets out his perspective on the company's current position and future challenges. Describing the Finnish phone maker as "a challenger now," rather than an incumbent, Vanjoki wants to introduce a "laser focus on quality," with his two central aims being to reclaim Nokia's reputation for high-end devices and to re-energize a flagging fan base. He specifically namedrops Ricky Cadden -- who yesterday shut down Symbian-Guru because he'd lost faith with the company -- and clearly considers grassroots support like that an important aspect of how Nokia's success will be judged. As to the actual software front, Anssi confirms that the N8 will be the final Symbian^3 handset in the N-Series, but describes a Symbian^4 device in that family as a "strong possibility," a note which he follows up with a wink (seriously). Symbian is apparently still Nokia's smartphone OS of choice -- no Androids shall be found inside Nokia's hardware under Anssi's watch -- though MeeGo also earns a mention as the "awesome" platform for delivering "market-changing mobile computers." Just in case you were wondering, Anssi finishes off by telling us that these wondrous computers will be small enough to fit into your pocket -- though, sadly, he fails to specify exactly what sort of pocket that might be. [Thanks, Peter]
Nokia N8 to be final Symbian N Series device, all MeeGo from here on out
Whoa. Nokia's premier range of devices, the N Series, will bid adieu to the Symbian operating environment and go MeeGo full time after the introduction of the N8. That's what we've just heard directly from the Finnish horse's mouth. Nokia will naturally keep Symbian around -- of course there's a whole Symbian^4 to come -- but will utilize it on more mass market devices as it seeks to push smartphones further down the product hierarchy. So it's not necessarily bad news, as such, it means we'll likely see Symbian trickle down to handsets priced more like featurephones and less like miniaturized laptops. What it does mean, however, is that Nokia is pushing forward with its modernization plans, and doing so more aggressively than previously thought. Which we consider to be a pretty awesome (and necessary) thing.
Symbian^4 makes video debut, fails to wow
Maybe it's the lack of a banging soundtrack, but we're finding ourselves somewhat underwhelmed by these first video appearances by the highly anticipated Symbian^4 user interface. What we're shown is a now familiar layout for touchscreen devices, with a trio of home screens that can be customized with widgets and live information trinkets such as a clock and a weather app. It is, as promised, very touch-centric, but it is by no means revolutionary. Both videos are titled as mere "first glimpse" offerings, however, so the eternal optimist in us likes to believe that there'll be plenty more to get excited about as we move closer to that early 2011 launch. See them after the break and let us know what you think.
Symbian provides early glimpse at 2011 Nokia smartphone experience
We've been pretty hard on Nokia with regard to its miserable S60 5th (aka, Symbian^1) user experience as compared to the competition. Fortunately, Nokia's bound and determined to freshen things up in 2010 with two major updates scheduled for the first and second halves of the year. At the moment, Symbian^3 (that's Symbian three) is expected first with Symbian^4 coming before the end of the year (functionally complete in Q3 with S^4 devices shipping in early 2011 according to the symbian.org wiki page). What we've got above then, is a UI Concept proposal for the latter. As you can tell from the pics, Symbian^4 promises to deliver an entirely new user interface: navigation is streamlined and platform apps will be reorganized and redesigned to leverage next gen graphics meant to deliver visually appealing transparencies and transitions on Symbian devices. The experience is based on Direct UI and built upon Qt and Orbit -- a strategy that Nokia hopes will lure developers to the table by making apps easy to build and update with broad scalability across Nokia's entire lineup of handsets. Note that the concept is open for discussion (and thus change) so voice your opinion now. And no, responding "N900 FTW" doesn't count. One more image after the break.