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Nokia Killing Symbian and S40 In North America

Posted by Unknown on from the build-your-own-coffin dept.

In an interview with AllthingsD, the head of Nokia's US operations declared that Nokia will be focusing exclusively on Windows Phone devices in North America. Reasons cited include the low profit margins of the ubiquitous low-end Series 40 devices and lackluster sales of Symbian based devices. This also means that the N9 won't be making it to North America either.

7 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Open Source to clenched-fist model. by operator_error · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dear Nokia, I love your engineers. But please ditch your marketing department, just soon as you fire your CEO Stephen Elop, the $hill from Micro$oft. I miss you lots.

  2. Decent kit is going away :( by semi-extrinsic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a shame, really. My wife's 4 year old Nokia E65 is still doing its thing, with an OK web browser, wifi etc., and the battery life is roughly 5x what my LG Optimus gets. Nokia used to make some great kit if you weren't the type that had to have "Apps" that were just repackaging of websites or farting noises.

    --
    for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
    1. Re:Decent kit is going away :( by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Funny

      What would I do without farting noises? That's the pinnacle of funny. The acme of funny even. How can you not have farting noises?

      Learn to make farting noises yourself. Be a producer, not a consumer!

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    2. Re:Decent kit is going away :( by syousef · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a shame, really. My wife's 4 year old Nokia E65 is still doing its thing, with an OK web browser, wifi etc., and the battery life is roughly 5x what my LG Optimus gets. Nokia used to make some great kit if you weren't the type that had to have "Apps" that were just repackaging of websites or farting noises.

      Nokia also use to let you install apps without having to buy certificates until Symbian Signed came along. The apps just weren't as sophisticated. A change in June means even getting a dev cert costs $$$, so they can go to hell now. There are some very useful applications for customising your phone out there - it's not just fart apps. For example Nokia doesn't do an auto answer to speakerphone app (which would essentially do away with the need for a hands free unit). But you can get an app for that. Before they killed off the freeware community there use to be a lot of good stuff for free for their candybar phones.

      --
      These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  3. Re:Nokia is still in business? by mickwd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apparently so. But their new CEO appears to be doing everything he can to change this.

    Quite what the major shareholders think about it, I'd love to know.

  4. Die Nokia! Die! by syousef · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nokia have turned Symbian OS into a joke. Every application you install including any freeware must be signed or your phone must be hacked. You also need a developer certificate - specific to the phone's IMEI to hack your phone. Ever since this June when Nokia changed Symbian Signed so that getting a developer certificate software for free is no longer possible, Way to turn a smart phone into a dumb phone. I'm locked into a contract until November. After that I'll never buy anything Nokia or Microsoft again. I am not big on brand loyalty but I have been using Nokia phones exclusively since 1998, and now I can't wait to ditch them. Up until a couple of years ago I was able to get good battery life and install the odd app to customise my phone without too much drama. Sure PC suite was buggy and made teathering difficult when it crashed (requiring phone or PC or both to be rebooted) and instead of fixing it it seemed to get buggier with every generation but I could live with that. For the most part the phones were just the right balance of smart phone at a good price. Now they are overpriced pieces of junk - you'd almost be better off with one of those crappy throwaway GSM only phones for all the capability the latest gen of phone give you. Bye bye Nokia, don't let the door hit your arse on the way out and take Symbian Signed with you.

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  5. Asymptotically circling the drain... by xeno · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Talk about the walking dead... wow.
    Nokia dumping Symbian in an age when lo-end CN knockoffs come with Android 2.x, and HP is putting WebOS on printers... actually makes a little sense.
    Nokia dumping Harmattan/Maemo6, an in-house controlled solid full-scale OS with a UI that's 4 years too late.. seems lazy or poor judgement.
    Nokia jumping on WinPhone7, with zero control of a third-party franchised OS that has a great UI but functionality 4 years behind the curve... seems genuinely self-destructive.

    Bye, Nokia. Nice knowing you.

    --
    I think not...(*poof*)