how loyal to symbiam are you?

[JUGGERNAUT]

Well considering that Symbian phones are the only ones that can reformat SD cards after they are used in WinMob 7 phones then I think they are still pretty useful

[dehyah]

Europe is becoming increasingly nervous as Android and Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iOS continue to dominate the smartphone market worldwide.

"There's a concerted effort on three different fronts where European carriers and manufacturers, mainly carriers, are sounding alarms about not wanting an Apple-Google duopoly," Marc Beccue, a senior analyst at ABI Research, told TechNewsWorld.

"France Telecom's CEO has said he believes Apple and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) are Trojan horses to capture loyal customers," Beccue added.

One of the three areas the Europeans are working on is Symbian, the operating system from Nokia (NYSE: NOK). They set up the Symbeose consortium to develop the OS further.

The other two European efforts are the WebinOS and Mosquito projects.

Android and iOS dominate in the United States and Western Europe, while Symbian and BlackBerry lead in other regions, Strategy Analytics reported.

Could the Europeans be shaping up for a war with the United States in the mobile device sector?


Symbian Isn't Dead, It's just Hibernating

Many thought Nokia had turned its back on the Symbian operating system when it struck a deal with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in February to use Windows Phone 7.

The company shut down the Symbian Foundation and killed the foundation's public relations budget, Andrea Heuer of Consort Partners, the foundation's public relations agency, told TechNewsWorld.

However, Nokia seems to want to keep Symbian alive. In fact, it released two new Symbian smartphones -- the E6 and the X7 -- on Tuesday.

"Nokia has internalized Symbian and plans to use it for their lower-end smartphones," Mark Beccue, a senior analyst at ABI Research, suggested prior to the Tuesday releases.

That could mean a big change in the role of Symbian.

"The Symbian that existed the past few years -- an open operating system available to other handset manufacturers -- now ceases to exist," Beccue told TechNewsWorld.

Nokia did not respond to TechNewsWorld's requests to comment for this story.
Europe Throws Its Weight Behind Symbian

The Europeans appear to be interested in working on their own home-grown mobile OS, and apparently are thinking of using Symbian for that.

Symbeose, a consortium of major technology and research organizations, has been created to propose development projects to enhance the Symbian platform.

Symbeose stands for "Symbian -- the Embedded Operating System for Europe." The consortium consists of 24 organizations from seven different countries.

Symbian was identified by the Artemis Joint Technology Initiative as a vital focus for European-centric mobile software development under an initiative sponsored by the European Commission.

The EU kicked in 11 million Euros, or just over US$15 million, to fund development projects proposed by the Symbeose consortium. Another 11 million Euros came from consortium members.

The consortium will target future technologies for inclusion in Symbian. It will also work on making Symbian a platform for multiple types of mobile Internet-connected devices.

The Symbian Foundation did not respond to TechNewsWorld's request to comment for this story.

Nokia's revitalization of Symbian may change the situation.

"I think it would be ludicrous for Symbeose to move forward, as it would simply be the EU's funding research and development for Nokia now," ABI Research's Beccue opined. "If that's now the case, they should call it funding for Nokia."




http://www.technewsworld.com/story/E...ent-72258.html

[Jamie]

Will be sticking to symbian until that day of choosing comes...would really prefered if Nokia went Droid other than Wp 7 though...

[Original_Jamaican]

I have never been a Symbian fan in the past due to the slowness of the processors but ever since the E51 era I now love Symbian. So far I have owned two Symbian smartphones in my life, the E51 and presently the E71. I can't imagine having a better smartphone than the E71. Will I remain loyal to Symbian...I surely will!!!

[Original_Jamaican]

Well considering that Symbian phones are the only ones that can reformat SD cards after they are used in WinMob 7 phones then I think they are still pretty useful

Yes I love the fact that you can format memory cards with Symbian. Many other OS can't do that. What is even better is that you can password-protect your memory card.