So...
Where's Windows Phone in all this?
Android is the clear winner in the market for smartphone operating systems, showing big year-on-year jumps across Western Europe and in the US. Not so Symbian, which plunged over here - and has now nearly vanished on the other side of the pond. The latest figures come from Kantar, a self-styled "inspiration supplier" which …
I am a die hard Nokia fan, I have had Nokia's from day one with the 101... I have loved my e71 for years but its battered to bits, you cant say its not a business phone it ticks all the boxes and I thought the same would be for the e6 with Symbian Anna... Oh how wrong I was Symbian Anna is clearly trying emulate that children's iPod the iPhone with its rounded edge icons linking to 'apps' and having nothing of any use what so ever on the home screen! The e71 showed you your next appointment, TODO's messages, music player, missed calls, etc etc all on one screen, you didnt even have to unlock it for a quick view! Anna just sucks its kiddy's playtime. Oh well, I guess its the blackberry for me now.
I now have a collection of the older E Series phones to carry me through the current Fisher Price Phone fad. Nokia are updating the E72 and E52 with a few updated apps and you will find that most of the other apps for Symbian can still be found (but install them now as they will doubtless disappear).
A disclaimer here, I know the E Series do not have touchscreens. I consider this an advantage. I know the E Series are not particularly media presentation friendly, I could not care less. I know that the E Series are excellent at telephony, integrate with Google apps pretty well and have long battery life, all of which I do care about. I also find that my E52 has a DLNA client and control point, FM and internet radio, GPS and maps, integrated (with the native contacts DB) SIP client, and the sort of "home" screen as discussed above. I also understand that some people find it very complicated to use. I don't.
If Apple treated their customers with respect and didn't aggressively label their products as legacy whilst still actively selling them then I for one would stay with them. However, I'll go to an OS that at least gives me a choice of what I want.
"the iPhone 3GS, but it's perceived as an old, previous-generation product," Because that's what Apple WANT you to think!
It was a comparison of smartphone operating systems, not the phones themselves. That Android has taken a shotgun approach to dispersement while Symbian has decided to restrict itself to only one manufacturer (well until Nokia carries it outside behind the barn for some one-on-ax-handle time) is a variance in strategy, but discussing the growth or loss of one OS to another is perfectly valid. Now, if the comparison had been "phones that have X specs and features", then yes, comparing Nokia to all the Android ones en masse would be apples and oranges, but this is Grannysmith vs. Red Delicious.