Nokia posts 'major' Sym... er... smartphone OS update Nokia may be obsessed with Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, but that hasn't stopped it rolling out the latest version of its other OS, Belle, to a seven handsets. Step forward owners of Nokia N8, E7, E6, X7, C6-01, C7 and Oro phones, you can now download Symbian - no, don't mention the 'S' word... - Nokia Belle for your gadget. …
Lessons have definitely been learned from the Anna (and earlier PR1.1) rollout. This time, the rollout seems to be much much wider, and all released at once rather than staggered, and Nokia have put up a site especially for the more OCD members of the user community to see where their version is (If you're Australian, you may want to sit down first):
http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/nokia-belle-update/nokia-belle-update-availability
(Despite the URL, the eagle-eyed will notice the presence of the name that dare not speak its name on the page itself).
The problem is that's article saying that Nokia has canned all but one future Symbian smartphone and the platform itself is not really very substantial article. We'll need to wait until they say something at the MWC at the end of the month.
Doing a range of updatable phones on a unified platform then canning it all when the first major update comes out is impressive even by Nokia's standards.
The article saying that Nokia is killing Symbian now is just a pile of cr@p, written by someone with a hate for Symbian who was even too lazy to find out some very basic facts. Like the one that the supplier (ST Ericsson), who was mentioned in this article and who complained about a lack of sales of one of it's biggest customer, doesn't even make components for Nokia Symbian devices (which use chipsets made by TI). ST Ericsson does make components for Nokia Windows phones, though, so the low sales of their biggest customer are probably Nokia WP7 devices.
This aside, Symbian is still one of the most widespread platform in some of the largest markets of the world (Asia), and even if Elop doesn't like it he is certainly well aware that this is what brings some revenue. Especially since many of these markets don't give a f*ck about Windows Phone 7.
You are wrong. Nokia did mainly use Ti for th longest time and they still use Ti for some of their phones. The N8 was not one of them. It has Broadcomm and ST parts inside the phone. The main CPU is not a Ti OMAP part either. Some of the Ti parts are for WLAN, GPS and BT though. The GPU is from Broadcom; BCM2727. The main CPU is not a Ti part though.
Wrong. The main processor in the N8 is a TI OMAP 3622. It also contains the chipset for the camera and other functions, only the GPU is 3rd party component (Broadcom as you stated correctly). No ST Ericsson components in the N8, though.
Let me repeat it again.: ST Ericsson does not make components for Nokia Symbian phones, period. So if ST Ericsson complains that the sales of it's biggest customer (Nokia) are lower than expected, it can't be because of Symbian sales. But since ST Ericsson makes components for Nokia WP7 devices, their complaint is very likely related to disappointing sales of Nokia phones with Windows Phone 7.
I did the 'Belle end' joke on a previous thread - and got downvoted for it!
Aside, I took my phone and USB cable to the pub today* to do the download/upgrade.
Wrong micro-usb!! It can only be connected with the micro-micro cable supplied with the N8! Which has the 'wrong' kind of connector on the end, so if you buy an extension (original's about 4" long) you're still screwed, as most are male - female.
Dash home in -25C to grab the correct (Nokia) one. Who thought of that!?!?
Software took a fortnight to start, only at which time did I find the pub's computer's USB is buggered!
OK, try again at work...
*Linux-only house at home.
This article about killing Symbian is just wishful thinking by someone who does not know strategic marketing - there is still a global mass market for low-end and midrange mobiles. If they "killed" Symbian, Nokia would be completely going against their gowth-share matrix and leave millions of customers to their competitors from the far east. They are not going to do that.
The world does not revolve around iOS and Android, that's why for example Samsung is quietly building up their Bada OS.
Symbian will not die now, but the name most certainly will. For various reasons this name is attached to a quite negative image, which Nokia wants to get rid of. Already with Belle Nokia is now talking about 'Nokia Belle', not 'Symbian Belle'.
Of course Symbian as platform will live on (at least for the forseeable future), as the market share is still huge, especially in Asia.
OK, downloaded it to my N8 yesterday. Noticed a couple of apps are missing ("Joiku" for tethering, paid-for "recorder", Upcode to read those funny 2-dimenion barcodes and "Omat Pysäkit" - own stops - which is ideal for finding your bus route in Oulu, Tampere, Helsinki).
OK, go to download joiku lite, which can only be done with SMS, not via PC. Click link, and it says my 3G service provider (Saunalahti/Elisa) can't be found. Sure enough, it's turned itself into 'offline' mode. Reboot is the only way back. Even 'asking' it to just gives me the option of going to OFFline mode, no online online!
Upcode downloaded - via the PC - OK.
Recorder - I paid for this excellent app, worked on Anna, invisible on Belle.
So, Nokia Store, get it back from 'My Stuff'. Nope, no record of it. No longer visible on the site, either.
Fantastic translation tool's vanished, to be replaced by gTranslator which must've been written by one of those folks who can see the numbers in coloured dots psychaitratrists use. Black on dark grey, FFS?? Oh, that can't acces the network either. Reboot.
"User manual" on the phone (Knowing how crap Nokia is about those gave me a chuckle) explains nicely how to add widgets and shortcuts to the home screens, doesn't tell how to delete them! (Answer, hold shortcut for a couple of seconds, a tiny red 'x' appears for a couple of seconds. Tap that, and it vanishes. miss it by a fraction, and the damn app. you're trying to get rid of starts)
In short, if these had been fixed, and released with the N8, Elop could've saved a trip. This N8/Belle combination is superb. I'll love it more when they get the bugs out. Plus, write a decent user manual.
Oh, and stop using "Summer Trainees/Interns for useability testing. Unbelievably, they do, honestly. (I guess that's why talking on the first N-Gage made you look like you had a slab of pizza stuck to your head. Symmetrical with the skew-wiff baseball cap, I guess...
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