Symbian, oh lovely Symbian. There for years, continually releasing small updates here and there yet ultimately overshadowed by the likes of Apple, Android, RIM, and now even Palm. It’s not hard to argue that Symbian is kind of lacking when you look at the offerings form the larger players just named. Could marketing Symbian as “100% open source” help the mobile OS and it’s image?
It certainly couldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. But what exactly does it mean? Well, quite simply, anyone can now download Symbian source code for free. We all know how much people love free stuff. Will this new found freedom allow Symbian to soar to new hights of popularity? Honestly, it’s going to take a heck of a lot more than a free lunch to get everyone excited about Symbian again.
Android and the iPhone OS are the two current hot beds of activity. I exclude RIM and Palm as the BlackBerry OS while still highly functional is really starting to show it’s age and lack of modern features. Palm and their webOS on the other hand is a great newcomer to the game. But their market share is still incredibly small, with plans moving forward all but inching along.
One other potential stumbling block is that even though Symbian is now officially free to all who want it, Nokia is still the biggest supporter of the mobile operating system. Their flavor of Symbian mind you is not free. Regardless, there is reason to be excited about Symbian with the most immediate excitement being the announcement of Nokia’s “Cseries” spin on Symbian. Being that Nokia is again the largest supporter of Symbian, is their success with their upcoming C-series enough to guarantee Symbian’s success?
Answer that and whatever else you feel like below.
Pingback: Mohadata
Pingback: Good N Free
Pingback: Karri Anttila
Pingback: Heikki Hallantie
Pingback: Jenna Ashley
Pingback: Social-Mobile Blog
Pingback: Nick Ku
Pingback: Gadgetsteria