Nokia first showed off the Nokia 808 PureView in February 2012 at Mobile World Congress, with the main feature of the device being its 41 megapixel camera. In addition, the 808 PureView featured Nokia’s Symbian as its operating system, an odd choice considering Nokia’s close partnership with Microsoft these days.
As part of their Q4 report, Nokia released the following statement about the future of Symbian.
During our transition to Windows Phone through 2012, we continued to ship devices based on Symbian. The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia.
This news comes alongside Nokia’s earnings report that boasts $585 million profit and $10.83 billion in revenue. In terms of cash flow, the company is doing great. However, Symbian was not pulling its fair share of sales this last quarter. Nokia managed to sell 2.2 million Symbian smartphones, 9.3 million touch Asha handsets and 4.4 million Lumia Windows Phones. These numbers were enough for Nokia to call for the end of Symbian. Interestingly enough, rumors of a 41MP Windows Phone 8 replacement to the 808 PureView have now started to surface as well.
As for Symbian? Now that iOS and Android rule the mobile market, it is hard to believe that anyone will truly miss the aging OS. My best guess is that Symbian will make a quiet exit like webOS did. If you just asked yourself what webOS is, you proved my point.
That said, Nokia isn’t leaving Symbian users in the dark when it comes to support. Nokia has now made an agreement with Accenture, a technology and outsourcing company, to provide software development and support for Symbian through 2016. In October of 2011, 2800 Nokia employees were given jobs at Accenture.
Are you going to miss Symbian? Or was it time for Nokia’s Symbian to take an exit? Let us know in the comments below.
