Reports have surfaced that Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia will halt the production of its Symbian-based smartphones this year.
Two unnamed sources told the Financial Times that Nokia will issue a final notice of its decision with a date, as there are still Symbian devices in the delivery chain that have to be sold.
According to the IDC, Nokia shipped 1.2 million Symbian smartphones in the first quarter of 2013, while market leaders Android and Apple shipped a combined total of 199.5 million units and in addition to seven million Windows Phone 8 smartphones.
According to the IDC's worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker, vendors shipped 216.2 million units in the first quarter of 2013, marking the first time that more than half (51.6%) the total phone shipments in a quarter were smartphones.
The 808 PureView is the last Symbian smartphone that Nokia manufactured.
After effect
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says the lower end of the market will suffer a blow as a result of Nokia's move. "It has to be kept in mind that half of all mobile phone shipments are still feature phones. And although Nokia's Asha range falls into that space in terms of feature phones, there is still a big base of Symbian users and devices being sold."
He says Nokia has started to see a rapid drop-off of Symbian sales and, as a result, it's time for the company to phase it out and to concentrate on new operating systems like its in-house Asha and Windows Phone 8.
"I suspect this is a sign that Asha is now going to be pushed down in the range in terms of cheaper Asha phones. Symbian is almost a borderline phone in terms of feature phones and smartphones. It's the phone that has been the distinction between the two and Nokia itself doesn't really like to distinguish between their smart and feature phones," Goldstuck adds.
Trendsetter
Goldstuck says the Symbian operating system, aside from BlackBerry, was the first real smartphone operating system.
"It was the first mass market smartphone operating system for the office phones, as they were called at the time, like the E72. They were like the BlackBerrys of the developing world when we still didn't have access to the devices and it was still a high-end enterprise phone in Western markets. The Nokia office phones played that role in SA."
He adds that Symbian then was as important as iOS is today. "The OS didn't cross over between the various manufacturers and was exclusive to Nokia devices."
Goldstuck says the phasing out of Symbian smartphones is no surprise and has been part of Nokia's roadmap all along. "When it announced it was going to use Windows 8 for all its high-end devices, it also announced the Asha OS for the entry-level smartphone market. It was obvious that Asha would eventually take over from Symbian."
Share