All About Symbian - Symbian, Nokia and S60 unwrapped.
IDC puts Symbian still significantly ahead in 2013
Published by Steve Litchfield at 9:37 UTC, January 27th 2010
Coming on the eve of Apple's big tablet release and Nokia's Q4 09 results announcement, IDC gathered all their numbers, analysts and (ahem) runes and produced a forecast for the smartphone market in 2013. Unusually, for an American data analysis firm, there's surprising understanding of the worldwide scene, with the headline stat being that the smartphone market will exceed 390 million units per year by 2013, with Symbian holding on to its world marketshare lead over the next three years. Quotes from the IDC press release and my own predictions below.
From the IDC release:
"By 2013, IDC forecasts that worldwide shipments of converged mobile devices, also known as smartphones, will surpass 390 million units, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.9% for the 2009–2013 forecast period. Underpinning the converged mobile device market is the constantly shifting mobile operating system (OS) landscape. In a market that was once dominated by a handful of pioneers, such as BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, newcomers touting open standards (Android) and intuitive design and navigation (Mac OS X and webOS) have garnered strong end-user and handset vendor interest."
Key findings from the IDC report include:
- "Symbian will retain its leadership position worldwide throughout the forecast period. Due primarily to the strength of Nokia in markets outside of the United States, Symbian continues to lead all other mobile operating systems.
- Android will experience the fastest growth of any mobile operating system. Starting from a very small base of just 690,000 units in 2008, total Android-powered shipments will reach 68.0 million units by 2013, making for a CAGR of 150.4%. Android will benefit from having a growing footprint of handset vendors supporting it and will finish second to Symbian in shipments by 2013.
- Linux and webOS shipments will struggle throughout the forecast period. Shipments of Linux-powered devices will trend down due to greater emphasis on the Android platform but will not disappear entirely as some vendors will continue to support it. Palm's webOS, despite growing steadily, will capture limited market share due to limited deployment and availability of devices across multiple carriers."
The report rings true, my own personal forecast is that in 2013 the smartphone marketshare split will be:
- Symbian Foundation 34%
- Android 20%
- OS X (iPhone etc) 18%
- Blackberry OS 15%
- Others (including Windows Mobile, Web OS, Linux/Maemo, etc) 13%
Steve Litchfield
News Discussion
Unregistered
Of course these accredited professional analysts are all wrong because there are keyboard warriors posting "Symbian is dead" on AAS forums.
I love it when these people are forced to eat their own ****.
I love it when these people are forced to eat their own ****.
raffmonster
Sure, Symbian maybe ahead, but it will be by not a very large margin.I've been using Symbian and frankly, I don't understand why these people keep releasing feature packs and not concentrate on building a whole new OS from scratch. This laze has showed results in 'touch' UI S60 phones, none of them feels uniform all the way.
And keep in mind,these (IDC)are just projections, Symbian might not change,the competition will.
Still,being one of the people who stood by Symbian, unless they make an OS from the ground up, they(Symbian) are going to fail miserably in the upcoming years. About 'open ness',check out the video of a guy running Android on his Maemo N900.This is openness, not the ability to install whatever app you want on top of the OS, but the ability to utilise hardware resources the exact way you want
And keep in mind,these (IDC)are just projections, Symbian might not change,the competition will.
Still,being one of the people who stood by Symbian, unless they make an OS from the ground up, they(Symbian) are going to fail miserably in the upcoming years. About 'open ness',check out the video of a guy running Android on his Maemo N900.This is openness, not the ability to install whatever app you want on top of the OS, but the ability to utilise hardware resources the exact way you want
Unregistered
Another OS from the ground up? Which succesful smartphone manufacturer has done that? Palm? Surely they are an existing OS (MAC, linux) that have been adapted. This has the advantage of being a familiar environment for coders to easiliy adapt to.
Symbian is an OS designed for portable devices/limited resource from the ground up and consequently has the advantage of lightness despite being unfamilar to new developers.
It remains to be seen whether Symbian rid of S60 and with a QT enabled programming system will be a success, but the low level Symbian OS is as good as anything in most errors (esotericness being the exception) and is not in need of a redesign.
Symbian is an OS designed for portable devices/limited resource from the ground up and consequently has the advantage of lightness despite being unfamilar to new developers.
It remains to be seen whether Symbian rid of S60 and with a QT enabled programming system will be a success, but the low level Symbian OS is as good as anything in most errors (esotericness being the exception) and is not in need of a redesign.
Unregistered
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by raffmonster
About 'open ness',check out the video of a guy running Android on his Maemo N900.This is openness, not the ability to install whatever app you want on top of the OS, but the ability to utilise hardware resources the exact way you want
|
malerocks
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by raffmonster
Sure, Symbian maybe ahead, but it will be by not a very large margin.I've been using Symbian and frankly, I don't understand why these people keep releasing feature packs and not concentrate on building a whole new OS from scratch. This laze has showed results in 'touch' UI S60 phones, none of them feels uniform all the way.
|
Unregistered
[quote=raffmonster;455547]Sure, Symbian maybe ahead, but it will be by not a very large margin.I've been using Symbian and frankly, I don't understand why these people keep releasing feature packs and not concentrate on building a whole new OS from scratch. This laze has showed results in 'touch' UI S60 phones, none of them feels uniform all the way.
Yes and.....
Keep in mind, this (raffmonster) is just speculation.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by raffmonster
And keep in mind,these (IDC)are just projections, |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by raffmonster
Sure, Symbian maybe ahead, but it will be by not a very large margin.
|
Brendan Donegan
Symbian does not need to be 'redesigned from the ground up', unless you're mistaken about what 'from the ground up' actually is in this context. Do you mean the UI needs a major rethink? Then you're right, which is why it's happening. If you mean anything else then you're sadly mistaken.
raffmonster
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Brendan Donegan
Symbian does not need to be 'redesigned from the ground up', unless you're mistaken about what 'from the ground up' actually is in this context. Do you mean the UI needs a major rethink? Then you're right, which is why it's happening. If you mean anything else then you're sadly mistaken.
|
The UI needs an overhaul, each and every component is showing its age. In regards to OSes ,I meant a rethink of UI features and abilities(such as touch).Optimizations for 3-D acceleration in the interface itself(If a device has 3D chip,It should show in the UI).
Brendan Donegan
As I said, you're regarding the UI as the 'whole OS'. This is wrong. The UI is getting an overhaul, which it does need. I totally disagree that 3d effects should be used in the UI. It's just eye candy, get over it.
utak_bolpen
Symbian, as all the rage in forums that is critically criticized. It is just a small percentage of the market. Not all people are active on forums. I am from Philippines and I say, that Nokia have got a lot of fans here.
Nokia is up to something. I know that, maybe it is part of their plan to make people hate them as of the moment to garner much attention when a major change is set to launch.
The hype today is all about the UI. Remember the time when the megapixel count of camera matters, the dual cam feat, the music player, the 3G, the GPS craze, the stereo speakers, and now the UI. Many phone manufacturers are up to creating their own UI (Samsung, LG). Because it is a trend. Long time ago, Nokia has it's own, whether or not that UI is a trend. It will come off soon and another trend will be set.
Ease in UI is a disguising factor of smartphones today. UI might look easy, simple, but functionality is poor. Apple is a good example. They set this to cover things up. Hehe.
Nokia is up to something. I know that, maybe it is part of their plan to make people hate them as of the moment to garner much attention when a major change is set to launch.
The hype today is all about the UI. Remember the time when the megapixel count of camera matters, the dual cam feat, the music player, the 3G, the GPS craze, the stereo speakers, and now the UI. Many phone manufacturers are up to creating their own UI (Samsung, LG). Because it is a trend. Long time ago, Nokia has it's own, whether or not that UI is a trend. It will come off soon and another trend will be set.
Ease in UI is a disguising factor of smartphones today. UI might look easy, simple, but functionality is poor. Apple is a good example. They set this to cover things up. Hehe.
snoFlake
Yeah it's killing them
Search
Navigation
Social
Advert