All About Symbian - Symbian, Nokia and S60 unwrapped.
The changing shape of Nseries - no scaremongering, just the facts
Published by Rafe Blandford at 22:20 UTC, June 24th 2010
Nokia's quoted comments regarding the future of its Nseries devices have been causing much comment in the media in last few days. This editorial puts some perspective into the story - Nseries devices only represent around 12% of Nokia's Symbian portfolio and the evolution of the brand towards Maemo/MeeGo had been signposted since Autumn 2009. Moreover it is vital to understand that MeeGo and Symbian are complimentary parts of Nokia's overall software strategy. Read on for further analysis of the evolution of Nseries and a number of salient facts.
Here's the relevant statement, in full, from Nokia:
Symbian is enabling us to bring smartphones to more and more people and ensures scale for our solutions and services, and for developers. The Nokia N8 is our most advanced smartphone based on the new Symbian^3 software. MeeGo running on high performance devices, will deliver a wealth of Internet, computing and communication experiences with deep Ovi service integration. Going forward, Nseries devices will be based on MeeGo.
Key points
- Nokia: "Going forward, Nseries devices will be based on MeeGo". This suggests the Nokia N8 and its variants will be the last Nseries powered by Symbian.
- Nokia signposted this change at its Capital Markets Day in late 2009 and in brief at the Maemo Summit earlier in the year, so this shouldn't really surprise anyone.
- The widening market for Eseries devices and the advent of the Xseries and Cseries means the scope of Nseries has been narrowed when compared to its early history. Consequently in Q1 2010, Nseries devices represented only around 12% of Nokia's Symbian phone sales.
- In 2011 Nokia will likely ship more than 100 million Symbian devices.
- MeeGo will be the software platform for Nokia's highest end devices. In part they will be a new category of devices.
Nokia's strategy for MeeGo and Symbian
Nokia's overriding aim with MeeGo is to create a class of devices beyond what we think of as smartphones today. This class of devices can be described as as sitting between smartphones and laptops. That is what Nseries will be about, going forward. In one sense, this means Nokia has effectively tightened its definition of what it considers mobile computing (Nseries) to be.
As Nokia further explains:
MeeGo running on high performance devices, will deliver a wealth of Internet, computing and communication experiences. During 2010, MeeGo will become our pinnacle platform for Nokia’s solutions and services. We plan to create our flagship experience on MeeGo, with deep Ovi service integration; offering the most advanced performance and user experience. Nokia plans to launch a MeeGo-based device in 2010. MeeGo will offer an unparalleled open computing platform for pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, IP mediaphones, in-vehicle infotainment systems and connected TV’s.
Symbian is Nokia's smartphone platform for the forseeable future. Nokia will produce a broad range of Symbian devices from the low end (€100) to the high-end (€450). In 2011 it will be responsible for more than 50% of Nokia's device net sales (with Series 40 at 30-35% and MeeGo at 10-15%).
As Nokia explains again:
Symbian is enabling us to bring smartphones to more and more people and ensures scale for our solutions and services, and for developers. It is already the market leading smartphone platform and enables Nokia to offer a wide and differentiated portfolio of devices. Symbian balances performance with cost advantage to enable Nokia to democratize smartphones to a global mass market.
The relation between the two software platforms, in device terms, was best outlined in this slide from Nokia's Capital Markets Day late last year, where Nokia first outlined in detail in software and corporate strategy for the next few years.
However, it is also important to understand that MeeGo and Symbian are linked by common development environments - Qt and WRT. This means a large proportion of applications and services will be common to both platforms. This is a significant difference to existing mobile platforms, where there is something of an 'island effect' between platforms, with the exception of JME and select lower level software components (e.g. WebKit).
Symbian and MeeGo are complimentary to one another. Nokia's experience with Symbian has demonstrated that it is difficult to have a single platform that encompasses a full market range of devices. There is an inevitable conflict between the requirement s of devices opposite ends of the price spectrum. The primary aim of Symbian development in recent years, including Symbian^3, has been reducing the bill of materials to produce a phone. This has enable Nokia to dominate the mid tier and low end smartphone market where it has around a 70% market share. By contrast, MeeGo is not constrained by the need to run low cost devices. This means it can be more flexible, adopt technology innovations faster and have a differentiated user experience. Consequently it is better equipped to meet high end Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7 devices head on.
Both platforms are fully open source, with the guiding reins held by the Symbian Foundation and Linux Foundation respectively. Both have road maps stretching at least 12 months into the future. This degree of openness is unprecedented in any major mobile device platform, but comes from Nokia's belief than the business decision to use open source based platforms (and related activities) will enable them to build a richer, more innovative ecosystem at a faster rate than their competitors.
The changing face of Nseries
In one sense, Nokia's own definition of Nseries being about multimedia computers and mobile computing has never really changed. However, both the market, technology and user expectations have evolved over the last few years. One of the consequences of this is Nokia's relatively poor performance at the high end of the market. It also helps explain the thinking behind Nokia's future software strategy [PDF] and its aims for both Symbian and MeeGo, as explained previously.
A combination of poor performance in the high end, caused by under investment in Symbian's UI, and the narrowing scope of Nseries, is most clearly illustrated by the changing number of Symbian-powered Nseries announcements over the last few years:
- 2010 - 1 product (N8)
- 2009 - 2 products (N97 and N86) plus one variant (N97 mini).
- 2008 - 4 products (N78, N79, N85, N96).
- 2007 - 6 products (N95, N92, N82, N81, N77, N76) plus three variants (N95 8GB, N93i, and N81 8GB)
- 2006 - 6 products (N93, N80, N75, N73, N72, N71) plus one variant (N91 8GB).
- 2005 - 3 products in launch year (N70 N90, N91).
From 2008 onwards, more Symbian-powered devices were announced as numbered products (e.g. Nokia 5800). These numbered products now fall under Xseries and Cseries grouping. Looking back at the Nseries devices announced between 2006 and 2009, the majority of those in the N7x and N8x range would now fit into the X or C ranges. This reflects Nokia's changing attitude towards Nseries and mobile computing.
In the future we might expect to see a couple of Nseries devices a year (MeeGo powered mobile computers) and multiple Symbian-powered smartphones in each of the Eseries, Cseries and Xseries ranges.
Impact
Nokia will continue to produce powerful Symbian devices, similar to the N8, in multiple form factors and at various price points. However, they will appear within the X, C and Eseries classifications. At the same time, Nokia will continue, as it has in the past few years, to push Symbian down into lower and lower price points using a mixture of S60 3rd Edition FP2, Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition), Symbian^3 and Symbian^4 devices. The higher end devices will be the first to run on the newer versions of the platform, but this will trickle down over time. Incidentally, this does mean that both Symbian^1 and Symbian^3 may be around longer than people are expecting.
One of the consequences of the narrowed scope of Nseries devices and fierce competition at the high end is that Symbian-powered Nseries devices make up only a small proportion (12% in Q1 2010, less now) of Nokia's total Symbian device sales. The perception that the majority of Nokia's Symbian devices are Nseries is simply inaccurate. As such, the end of Symbian-powered Nseries devices will have a relatively small impact on Nokia's overall Symbian sales.
Indeed, we estimate that Nokia will ship more than 100 million Symbian devices in 2011. This is why articles and analyst opinions talking about the 'death' of Symbian are, at best, short-sighted. MeeGo sales will begin this year, but will ramp up in 2011, with sales in the 5-10 million range (very much an estimate).
Rafe Blandford, All About Symbian and All About Maemo, 24 June 2010
News Discussion
Reality is that Symbian OS sales is about to explode, because current S40 phones will be gradually replaced with Symbian models.
What has been obvious for quite many of us is still a mystery for a certain category of journalists.
Adding a bit of "history" in the discussion.
Nokia's existing consumer base is huge.
In the past 3 years, the UI of S40 devices has been converging towards the experience available on Symbian.
This enables Nokia to bridge the gap between lower and higher range platforms, making it easier for its consumers to move from one to the other.
Consumer's phones evolves with them, offering new opportunities, but keeping the experience consistent.
Looking at the "game changers" of the past couple of years, they all have in common the "novelty" of their UI/UX.
Nokia could not afford renewing the Symbian UI from one day to the other, Symbian needed to be consistent.
That is when Maemo entered the mobile computer segment.
From Maemo to Meego, Intel provides new opportunities and Meego is now the powerhorse of Nokia.
Its customer base belongs to a completely different segment than any Symbian devices.
Meego lives on the edge, and any innovation that matures and becomes a benefit for the masses will make it to Symbian.
Meego is the F1, while Symbian powers the mass production cars, where sedans, sports and coupe share the market.
And most of all, one can not go without the other. They need each other to survive and grow!
Only a few bloggers repeating inaccurate rumours. They should have been paying attention to Nokia last year at Nokia World and Capital Markets Day. Do you jump every time you hear a rumour? Maybe you should spend less time in "The Shallows" of social media sites. Less time on the internet is healthy.
There is a much bigger problem with the statements: MeeGo is not ready for the mass market yet, the integeration is a long way away. Nokia says 10-15 per cent of all devices sale be MeeGo this year. Nokia predicts 1.26bn device shipments for 2010 - so that is 126-189 million MeeGo devices to ship between now and the end of December.
So Nokia's numbers don't add up.
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Originally Posted by alphamusic
Thank you for putting so much effort into clarifying this issue. When I first saw a headline pronouncing the death of Symbian, I came straight here for answers. It's nice to see there is now an informed response to all the buzz.
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
What noise? Only a few bloggers repeating inaccurate rumours. They should have been paying attention to Nokia last year at Nokia World and Capital Markets Day.
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Nokia says 10-15 per cent of all devices sale be MeeGo this year. Nokia predicts 1.26bn device shipments for 2010 - so that is 126-189 million MeeGo devices to ship between now and the end of December.
So Nokia's numbers don't add up. |
All smartphones are mobile computers, I don't see the need for the separation.
Sorry mate, Meego is the only hope Nokia has. The good thing is the people in charge in Finland seem to realize this.
I get it now. Going forward, the Nseries devices are Internet access devices first, phones second. Nseries devices like the N900 and it's successors will use MeeGo to compete with iOS and Android devices. That doesn't just mean iPhones and Android phones, but iPads and Android-powered tablets too. Eseries and Xseries will be smartphones for people who want a phone first, that does the other stuff second. The Nseries will fight at a higher (price and performance) level in the market than it has in the past, and it can do this because the E- and X-phones are there to take the middle ground that used to be served by the cheaper N-devices.
I'm still not sure where the Cseries is supposed to fit; I know it's for the low-end, I-just-want-a-phone-that-I-can-put-annoying-ringtones-on crowd, but I don't see why that market needs a touchscreen+QWERTY keyboard slider like the C6.
No change there then.
Good article, Rafe. Nokia face some tough challenges ahead and their strategy to do it is interesting.
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Originally Posted by RealityCheck
Oh come on, this is absurd. Are you really trying to claim that MeeGo is any more advanced than iOS or Android? Symbian is over, MeeGo represents some hope for Nokia, but they are still years behind the big new competitors in the smartphone market.
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MeeGo is definitely more advanced than iOS and Android. Even the old N770 running the various HE versions of Maemo was more advanced. I doubt we'll see Nokia supporting MeeGo in quite the same ludicrously hacker friendly manner that they did Maemo though (although that was originally a skunkworks project).
In what way are Symbian and MeeGo years behind iOS or Android? Sure, you can mention the UI on S60/5th being relatively archaic, but the way people talk its as if its actually difficult to use. If you can't understand the overall operation of a 5800 or N97, then you quite possibly have "breath" tattooed on your eyelids as a reminder.
Personally, I am pleased to see that Nokia will be using Symbian as the OS for the normal smartphones. I am not interested in blowing a fortune on a phone and I am not interested in geeking around with it. Going by the working from Nokia, Meego is not for me, there will be Symbian phones that are more advanced than the N8 is now, but without the nurdy stigma. Good news. And I believe I am in the vast vast majority.
Clever by Nokia, good news for Symbian. There are FAR more Android 1.6 phones being sold than there are 2.1, because people just want a phone not a number. Only a few want the bleeding edge, and this is where the negative people can't see beyond their own little worlds.
100 million Symbian in 2010? I suggest far more.
When oh when am i going to have the option of a power of an n900 device which is also as capable of email/ document usage as a E71 E72?
So to avoid being a Nokia Guinea Pig, won't buy any high-end Nokia for a least 12 months! :dontknow:
Would a Nokia Android device mean the end of civilisation as we know it?
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Originally Posted by Arthur
Here comes Rafe... the omni present Symbian apologist ;-)
Sorry mate, Meego is the only hope Nokia has. The good thing is the people in charge in Finland seem to realize this. |
Please explain why you believe that Symbian has no future, or perhaps you can't, because you are so clearly wrong...
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Originally Posted by clonmult
In what way are Symbian and MeeGo years behind iOS or Android? Sure, you can mention the UI on S60/5th being relatively archaic, but the way people talk its as if its actually difficult to use. If you can't understand the overall operation of a 5800 or N97, then you quite possibly have "breath" tattooed on your eyelids as a reminder.
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Indeed. iOS is gradually catching up with where S60 was in 2003. It even has partial multitasking, so that's roughly where Psion were in 1990. And the iPhone's camera has almost caught up with the Nokia N82 of 2007. They'll get there in the end.
Steve [with tongue gently in cheek]
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Originally Posted by buster
Let's be honest, the iPhone UI is fairly archaic, simply presenting many screens of icons. Funnily enough, the iOS4 UI adopts a system whereby icons can be arranged in folders, much like S60...
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Does it or any of the Android skins not do what they need to do? Symbian^3 will also be there as good as they need to be. There is no new innovation here, we still wait for that from any OS.
The only problems with current UIs are when the makers try and add too much - fancy transitions and animations just for the sake of pretty without purpose. Win Mobile I am looking at you.
The N8 will be the last N-Series device running Symbian. Symbian^3 will be used for other devices, and total Symbian sales will exceed those of the iphone or Android devices this and next year. Seeing the replacement cycles for smartphones are within that timeframe, there is no need to fear that you are buying into a dying system.
Since Symbian^3 is an evolution from ^1 (aka S60 5th edition), you can expect ^1 applications to run on it. While there is not as big a choice as for the iphone or Android, all general needs are covered by what there is, and I personally feel that there are enough extras to keep you playing around for a while as well.
As for waiting for Symbian^4: The N8 probably won't get an update to this (though who knows?). Unlike Apple, Nokia has a lot of different devices on offer, and can't reasonably be expected to update them all with all new features. You have to know whether getting a device in a form factor and with capabilities that best suit you instead of a one-size-fits all is a trade-off for you. Considering that iphone updates of recent years have not brought much in the way of functionality that Symbian doesn't already have, I'd say you don't lose too much here. Plus Nokia does issue new firmware (at least for its more popular devices) on a far more frequent basis than Apple. My 5800 is a much better device now than it was when I bought it (though there was no big fanfare about new things being added, just quiet, efficient, unproblematic OTA udpates that didn't even require connection to a computer).
If you need fancy transitions and UI glitz at every step of the way, then wait if ^4 brings this - or go somewhere else. The iphone may be the phone for you, or maybe Android, or give Bada a try. There are a lot of systems out there. I won't slag off any of them - they all have their strengths and weaknesses, and you as the customer have to decide which you think best fits you.
Just be aware that, whatever the U.S.-centric blogosphere may be saying, Symbian is here to stay for a long time, and is a viable choice for many people.
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Still waiting for proper internet radio app for that.
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- Will the N8 be able to run all the apps and games that are already made for S60 5th?
YES! Symbian^3 is backwards compatible while also having the new native Qt system integrated into the OS. So, essentially you can say the Symbian^3 is a hybrid since it has both the S60/Avkon system AS WELL AS the new Qt system.
- Will the N8 be able to run all the Java apps written for S60 5th J2ME?
YES! It will run just fine, and probably a lot faster than on S60 5th devices.
- Will apps written in Qt for the N8 / Symbian^3 run on future Symbian^4 devices?
YES! That's one of cardinal ideas behind Qt, the aim is to throw out S60/Avkon in Symbian^4.
- Will Qt apps also run on older S60 5th devices?
YES! With an automatic download of the Qt libraries through a smart installer, this will work also. The user shouldn't notice anything.
- Will developers writing Qt apps for the N8 be able to publish them for Maemo/Meego devices?
YES! The Qt SDK supports building the SAME source-code for both platforms. Qt works in exactly the same way across Maemo/Meego, Symbian^3 and Symbian^4. Even games written in Qt and OpenGL ES can be build and hence work on those platforms.
- Will Symbian^4 be able to run old native S60 apps?
No, it will not. That's why Symbian^3 is first - to bridge the app support going from the old systems to the new unified Qt system.
Hope this answers people concerns.
/Henrik...
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