So the media welcome Sony's online distribution of old PlayStation games, but have poured scorn on Nokia's attempt to do the same with old N-Gage titles? Ewan points out this contradiction and looks forward to vindication of Nokia's strategy when the 'N-Gage platform' becomes mature.
This week All About Symbian is proud to host the Carnival of the Mobilists. The Carnival gathers writing on mobile from around the web and is guaranteed to find you interesting opinions and new sites to add to your daily reading list.
Symbian luminary David Wood has published his latest official 'Insight' article, taking the theme of security. This one's a little technical but especially worth printing and/or bookmarking, as it strongly echoes what we've said all along about the innate security of Symbian OS. This Insight piece should reassure smartphone users everywhere and provide some concrete rebuttal material for virus-hype-addicted journalists.
There's a fascinating half hour podcast from the Voice of S60, with an interview with Charlie Schick, who helped create and shape Series 60 from the days of the 7650 until recently. Lots of insights and anecdotes and a must-listen.
At the S60 Summit last week, Rafe got some serious hands-on time with the Nokia E50, the very latest (and diminutive) S60 3rd Edition smartphone. What can it do and who's it aimed at?
Nokia's first invitation-only 'S60 Summit' gets underway this afternoon, in Nice, at the Acropolis Congress Centre. It's basically loads of speeches, demos and expos from all working in the S60 community. Rafe's there for AAS, don't worry, he'll be posting on Wednesday with news and insights.
70 million phones. That's the number that's going round Symbian today (see press release below) as the private company releases sales figures for Q1 2006. The headline numbers of 10 licencees, over 120 phone models (66 in the market with a further 56 known to be under development) and a 56% year on year increase of revenue compared to Q1 2005, show Symbian to be in a very healthy financial state.
Suddenly a lot of things that we've been watching over the last year or two have fallen into place in regards to Nokia's mobile gaming strategy. Why did Nokia persist with N-Gage for so long? Why did they spend so much money on their E3 stand? Ewan analyses their strategy and comes up with a compelling argument for N-Gage-compatible smartphones outselling PSPs and the like in the next 12 months.
Darla's got the scoop on the relaunch of S60.com, the main Series 60/S60 platform site. Actual content in most of the two new prime areas, 'In your life' and 'Doing business' seems very light at the moment, it's very much aimed at S60 beginners, although there's a big push towards selling third party applications from the NSM. What do you think of the new site?
Interesting article here on a new classification for electronic devices (thanks to the Carnival for the link), though I don't think either 'Communications and control devices' or PCD will catch on. (Nor will Nokia's 'Multimedia Computer', come to that) As in my previous editorial, I think 'phone' will remain the popular term, with the term encompassing all current feature phones, smartphones and connected PDAs.
Symbian has formally welcomed BT into its Platinum Program. A useful alliance, no doubt, the full press release follows, with quotes from both parties.
Following last week's 48 hour poll to take a snapshot of the Symbian-powered smartphones you're currently using and your plans for the future, Steve Litchfield picks through the stats and draws out a few surprises.
More detailed Q1 sales analysis for smart mobile devices from Canalys, this time broken down just for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Sales are up 25% year on year, Nokia have 75% market share, with RIM, HP and Q-Tek second equal with just 3%. Palm has 2% of the market.
Canalys has released it's latest set of figures for the global smart mobile device in Q1 2006. Shipments up are 55% year on year with Nokia increasing its global market share to 54% with 8.6 million devices sold. This, together with strong performances from Mitsubishi and Sharp (4th and 5th in global sales respectively), gives Symbian its highest ever market share at 69%, with Microsoft second at 12%. Additionally the Asia-Pacific market has over taken the EMEA market in smart mobile device shipments.
At the S60 Summit last week, Rafe got some serious hands-on time with the Nokia E50, the very latest (and diminutive) S60 3rd Edition smartphone. What can it do and who's it aimed at?
