Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Symbian Blasts Google's Phone Initiative

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-now-there's-a-shocker dept.

nowhere.elysium writes "Symbian has suggested that Google is not experienced enough or capable of fully developing a workable mobile platform. Symbian's vice president, John Forsyth inferred that Google's interest in the field will also wane due to it being 'deeply unsexy', and that development is not likely for such a platform because "You have [...] a lot of zeroes in your sales figures before a developer gets out of bed." In the same series of statements, Linux is likened to the common cold: "About every three months this year there has been a mobile Linux initiative of some sort launched. It's a bit like the common cold. It keeps coming round and then we go back to business.""

6 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. First step for symbian. by raffe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hey, take a lesson from Microsoft:
    1. First they ignore you (Linux? What is that? Who cares?).
    2. They ridicule you (Linux is like cancer. Linux is un-American)
    3. Then they fight you. (Our ROI is so much better and we have a roadmap too!)
    4. Then you win

    It will happen to you to symbian!!

  2. In that case... by OgreChow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm glad there's no cure for the common cold. Is this guy just completely missing the fact that some of the brightest young developers in the world work for Google? They don't need external developers in order to be a success. Any third-party dev is just icing on the cake.

  3. A lot of /what/, before /who/ gets out of bed? by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Symbian and BREW developers are scarce, not because it's boring or unprofitable to develop for mobile platforms, but because it costs a fortune to get development licenses with the software vendors and distribution licenses with the carriers. If there was a truly open phone, with an SDK that allowed full network and display access, and users could install and run these apps without a carrier distribution aggrements, there would be many more mobile developers.

    Nothing like building a big wall around yourself, then complaining that nobody ever comes to visit.

    1. Re:A lot of /what/, before /who/ gets out of bed? by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Informative

      Mod this down, it's complete bullshit from someone who hasn't a clue. The SDKs for Symbian OS are free downloads, there are plenty of shareware and freeware developers working on it, and you don't need any license to install such apps on a phone.

      It will cost to buy a certificate to certify the app as non-malicious and fit for purpose, and without that the user will get a warning when installing that the app is unsigned. But that is a quite reasonable security step given that phone malware could cost serious money on a phone bill. But the lack of such a cert doesn't stop you from using or distributing free apps.

  4. Cold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once your old and useless it's fairly normal to die from a common cold.

  5. Re:Symbian must have some sand in their Bajingos by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Did you actually try to develop anything for Symbian?

    Well, I did. And let me tell you this: Windows APIs, complete with their haphazard organization and historical baggage, lunatic bugs and arcane undocumented extensions are an example of Reason and Logic, when compared to this positive 10 day old vomit which is Symbian. Any ole Linux API is like an Extatic Symphony of Cosimic Joy, Eternal Purity and All-Encompassing Sanity, next to this 10 day old vomit which is Symbian.

    Hell, I am being unfair to 10 day old vomit.

    You gotta be a masochist to develop for this thing, downloadable "api" or not.

    The toolchain is fucked up beyond belief.

    The API is a convoluted mess of overcomplicated certinisms, wheels reinvented to be square and with an offset axis, said square "wheels" within other square "wheels", and all existing only so that Symbian "alliance" can have NDAs, Patents and what not on this shit, which otherwise has been done a million times before, some 900 thousand times of which done much better.

    Great majority of it is undocumented or laughably documented (they want you to pay big money for access to the "real" stuff). Most of what is documented you do not want go near.

    The OS itself was designed by a brain-damaged monkey, its like a retarded dwarf cousin of Windows, complete with moronic "drive letters" and whole bunch of other truly imbecillic "features" from the early days of DOS, which even Microsoft doesn't want anymore.

    You gotta pay money for application certs.

    On and and on and on.

    Or and did I mention that there is like 6 mutually incompatible versions of the thing in the wild, and about 8 different, mutually incompatible of course, versions of the "ui" deployed on various phones?

    One way to gauge of the levels of insanity is the fact that there are a grand total of 4 (to my knowledge) languages ported to this thing, NONE of which has anything resembling something like a useful set of bindings to the Symbian API (Java, which is the only remotely usable one, has a very limited MIDP profile). Ponder that!

    In short: do pay good coin for those downloadable Symbian-specific apps if you need them, because their developers have all been through Hell several times to make them.

    What really kills me though is how arrogant and pompous the "designer" of this pile of pig manure about this monumental "achievment". Another, mind boggling observation is that there actually cell phone manufacturers using it.