My Top 10 Reasons for Staying with Symbian

What about lack of support for podcasts and audiobooks in the media player in Nokia's Symbian phones? SE's UIQ3, which was also based on the Symbian, got excellent support for this in their final phone models, G700 and G900, before they dropped UIQ3.

How Apple has integrated all this in iTunes is my reason for being happy with the iPhone. Music, video, podcasts and audiobooks, everything very well handled. iTunes will even synchronize current playing position in podcasts and audiobooks, so the same audiobook you already started playing in your phone, you can continue it from the same point in your Mac or PC. And the iPod player in the phone will also keep track of last played position in video files. If Nokia were to deliver something like this on their new models then I could switch back to Symbian again.

I am fourtunate to have a HTC Legend, Nokia N97 mini and E72 and like you I keep comming back to nokia, mainly the E72 but unlike you I don't understand why. The Legend does most things the nokias do but better and faster and much more but I keep putting my sim back in the Nokias, I think I need help sometimes, its like being in an abusive relationship.

true my friend. true. being a symbian enthusiast , i was overwhelmed by all the new methods to hack your phone (yes yes...i am a power user) and the scores of things that you can do after your phone is hacked. in fact, i was into symbian so much that all of the positive things were hidden by the cribbing power user.

I forgot for a while why i chose symbian in the first place itself. for its dexterity the goes hand in hand with the simplicity.

PS: nokia DOES makes crappy hardware. all my phones creak. this is a major thing that needs to be addressed. i hope they listen to the hue and cry of ours and do not disappoint us with the N8.

as my jamaican friend said, its better to have 5 quality dishes in your restaurant rather than having 50 quality-less dishes....!!

Still I don't call a Symbian as open in comparison of all these other names. Let me give you a simple example it really disappoint that while Maemo could play all kind of Video files, this kind of legendary wish of Symbian users is still unanswered even after we are about to reach in age of HD videos on Symbian based smartphones.

You struggle to hack your phone to suit basic apps like call recordings/ FM recording etc. Definitely these are small things that are not that hard to be done.

Hi Steve,

Great post, hope you dont mind but I have mentioned it on my blog at http://irelandstechnologyblog.blogspot.com/

You mention that the hardware is always good - but that's contradictory to your point on price.

It definitely has some huge potential, but ... the "signing apps" thing sux big time. how can you talk about openness?!

You don't need to hack your phone to record calls - there's an app for that. In fact there are a few, so have a look.

Podcasting support?

Since the N95 (unsure of which firmware revision), podcasting support on Symbian has been better than what Apple offer, at least on-device.

As of v2 firmware on the iPod Touch, whilst you could download podcasts, you couldn't subscribe to feeds. Symbian podcasting support is pretty good. And in those circumstances, the podcast is only needed on one device, so no need to sync playback position.

Audio book support though isn't that good .....

Of course, the counter argument is why can you not do this on your iPhone directly? I NEVER need to connect my E90 to my PC to update my Podcasts, my phone does it all for me automatically. This would be possible on an iPhone if Apple didn't deliberately prevent this. Also, on my Nokia, I can delete any files I want, without having to use a PC; on an iPhone/iPod Touch this is not possible, as many file types (ie. music and photos) can ONLY be deleted via iTunes, rendering the iPhone not so much a powerful smartphone as a PC accessory. That's why open-ness is a good thing, but something that Apple do not intend to allow...

Some replies:

>>You mention that the hardware is always good - but that's contradictory to your point on price.

No, I said that some of the best hardware is on Symbian devices. Also some of the cheapest, most plasticky. It's all about range. But for those who want high spec components....

>>It definitely has some huge potential, but ... the "signing apps" thing sux big time. how can you talk about openness?!

Signing is important to avoid malware. That aside, the Symbian world is still far more open than, say, iPhone OS. And you can write apps in 10 languages. And distribute apps from any old web site.

Steve

As a long time (21 of the last 26 years) software developer (on all sorts of platforms) and Symbian fan for several years, and part-time mobile industry analyst who's done professional studies of the iPhone and Android SDKs, I can tell you where there is NO contest from iPhone or Android devices currently and why I resolutely stick with Symbian - it's because of these points mentioned in your article: Hardware, Maturity and depth, Power management, Openness, Security and Price.

Nokia/Symbian devices simply beat every other device going, often by miles, and by years, on all these fronts. So, simply, why on earth would I want to spend my money on an inferior product? As a developer too, Ovi Store is well on it's way (1.7m downloads/day), whilst Android store doesn't make developers any significant money, and iPhone store you're competing with 180,000 other apps (good luck!).

Critics only really have the UI to harp on about these days, and frankly a.) sales have proven customers more often choose S60 touch even when also presented with iPhone or Android. b.) Symbian ^ 3 easily matches or exceeds the best iPhone and Android have to offer.

I rest my case.

i could'nt agree more steve. as a user, i find symbian so easy, intuitive, less demanding of battery power, less demanding of processing power and readily customisable. the n97 is hampered by very low RAM (whoever designed it at 128mb should be fired!) and the lack of dedicated graphics processor (a retrogression from N82 which has HW graphics accelerator). otherwise, it is a well-designed fone. moreover symbian fones have been around for long with samsung, SE, and nokia already having established retail shops in the countryside of the philippines. hence accessories and after-sales service come handy. philippines is mostly loyal to nokia, we in return await favor that nokia n8 be released soonest here.

Let us face it, it takes years to learn this 'mature' system. You have to be a geek in order to investigate all these layers of semi-working applications with hope to find a solution which suits your needs. I believe most people just give up early and move to a more user friendly device if they really need a functionality beyond phone calls and text messages.

Sites like this are certainly very helpful, but taking into account structure of Ovi Store and scattered applications market, it costs a lot of time to discover all this interesting niche products, like garmin xt, joikuspot, podcasting, nokia sports tracker, coreplayer, opera, snaptu or mail for exchange.

Still after few years with s60 devices I see no worth mentioning e-mail client. I am using the build-in client which is ok, but does not read html e-mails.

Even though I presently still use Symbian (on a Samsung i8910), I can look critically at some of its downsides. The app signing, and need to hack your phone to get it to do basic things (conversation view SMS), is a royal pain in the rear. It totally scares off new users.

Also, I think the main competition is more Symbian vs. Android rather than Symbian/Nokia vs. the Apple iPhone.

Apple, perhaps brilliantly, decided to envelop the iPhone into their whole ecosystem. No one will be able to beat their combination of: vast iTunes content availability, hundreds of third party accessories, and a dominant developer following. They have a niche, but a very, very lucrative niche, similar to their Macbook lines, that nobody will likely be able to match.

So, Nokia should set its sites instead on preventing Android from becoming the default 'Windows' of the mobile space, which it is threatening to do. Just the fact that manufacturers like Archos and Dell are using Android on tablets, should scare the daylights out of Nokia and the Symbian Foundation and light a fire under their posterior.

Also, since I don't see Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 really taking off (Microsoft STILL has no clue how to market to consumers; look at the Kin), Nokia should explore even further partnerships with them, possibly even including Zune Media Marketplace integration.

Absolutely, though the situation has got a lot better in recent times, in fairness to Ovi.

But this feature was why *I* stay with Symbian, not some average Joe Bloggs - to be honest, when people ask me what to buy, I ask how tech literate they are. If 'Not at all' then I point to the iPhone range. Or, if they're struck for cash, to one of the cheap Nokia S60 touchscreens. But it's the slightly geekier scene which interests me - people who are tech-savvy enough to help themselves and find stuff that stretches both them and the device.

...all this and free maps! (well, free-ish or soon to be free)

ILG

and when will you write "1001 reasons not to stay with symbian any more" ? :)

I guess when there are 1001 reasons worth mentioning (could be a long wait then)...

Yeah, I've also used Nokia Podcasting on E61i, E90 and last the unofficially 'cracked' version on E72. And the ability to download podcasts directly on the phone is excellent. But I rather have a podcast client that resumes from the last played position to avoid fast forwarding than the ability to download directly to the phone. None of three Nokia phones I listed remembers last played position. I know at least the N95 supported this if the audio files had podcast as the category but oddly enough Nokia didn't retain this feature in newer models (E72). I connect my phone to PC every day to sync calendar and stuff so podcasts get refreshed automatically at the same time.

But we're all different creatures. Some value podcatching directly to phone more and don't mind fast forwarding an hour-long podcast where they last paused it before exiting the podcasting client...

The ideal would be a full podcatcher with resume support, where the client remembers which podcasts have been played partly or fully and indicates this accordingly. Maybe we can hope for this now when Escarpod has been chosen as the official Symbian podcatcher...

BTW, Android 2.2 Froyo, now adds Wifi hotspot tethering and USB modem tethering, so Symbian loses the Joikuspot advantage. It's being rolled out now, and it supposedly works great on the Nexus One.

The better question would be with all the choice out there as far as OS types are concerned, with OS types that are often better than Symbian why would you keep inflicting Symbian on yourself. Now a Nexus One user I have no desire to return to Symbian at this time.

I am especially bemused about the comment about hardware in the article, to me a lot of Nokia's these days can best be classed as poorly made & cheap & nasty. Yes there are exceptions, but speaking in general if I wanted a well built phone I certainly wouldn't look to get a Nokia unlike in the old days.

Same goes for security, to try & pretend that Symbian is somehow better than OS X or Android in this area beggars belief.

You probably missed this, as S60 user experience is a beast at best, but playing Podcasts thru music player will remember position and which podcasts are played past shutdown. Podcasting really needs to be integrated into music player, something akin to desktop iTunes, but on the mobile. I only use Podcasting to scrape podcast feeds now, but listen to all my podcasts on Music Player. But funny enough, because I've sent my N97 in for GPS repair (finally) I'm starting to get re-acquainted with my N95-3, and I have to say, the integration between Music Player and Podcasting is much better, as Podcasting in the N95 can actually delete the podcast that is currently open on Music Player, but Music Player will handle it gracefully. N97 will not let me do that if Music Player is on the same directory as the open podcast. Typical symptom of Symbian for the past 3 years, as UI development just went downhill. "Podcasting" as a concept is still great, but Podcasting app on the S60 needs a serious overhaul, like kick it out and integrate the functions back into Music Player, please!!! Who needs another app that does the same thing Music Player does - play sound files????
It so stupid to have net-aware phones and the basic apps (calendar, music player, contacts, etc.) are not net-aware still. But at least Nokia Maps gets this right. It's something that Android gets right as well. S60 development team still doesn't seem to get it.

-Gene

Nokia has done an excellent job of listening to its consumers & have catered their devices to your needs. They have even addressed the build quality issues that used to plague Nokia handsets. I would now very easily say that their build is on par with Motorola, whom I consider to be the best at build quality.

Another issue that still makes me a staunch supporter of Nokia is their designs. Even their budget handsets look like they cost much more than the user actually paid for.

As far as calling the UI "old", why is that the iPhone's UI has been basically unchanged for 3 yrs., yet god forbid that anyone call it "old"...which it is. It is also nothing special. The icons are perhaps the worst thing about the UI.

I consider Nokia to be designed for users who like classy devices, & aren't also concerned that the menu won't do a freakin' 720 corkscrew somersault before it's closed.

I think Nokia is right on track, & once MeeGo & S^4 are announced, the naysayers will finally remove their foot from their mouth.

Long live the king....

The fact that you have to write an article titled "My Top 10 Reasons for Staying with Symbian" is a good enough reason to question why you need to convince yourself of an operating system you see as so superior. My nokia 5800 ultimately sucks. It's slow and it crashes, apps are nothing compared to iphone....as one single example, compare the user experience of facebook on a nokia 5800 and on an iphone. the iphone SHITS all over the 5800 in so many ways.