Should Nokia Abandon Symbian S60 for Maemo Linux?
Posted on 28. Nov, 2009 by admin in Computers
Source: (slashgear.com)
Nokia has a problem: it is both the largest handset vendor in the world, by a significant margin, and the largest smartphone vendor in the world – again, by a significant margin. Yet it has never managed to crack the U.S. smartphone market, and it has begun losing market share even in its European strongholds, primarily to Apple, though RIM, Samsung, and HTC are also threats. Nokia admits that it was caught sleeping while Apple first redefined the mobile user experience with the iPhone, and then again when Apple reenergized app development with the App Store. Nokia’s initial response has been lackluster: adapting its existing Symbian S60 OS to support touch, applying that to a few phones (the 5800 and the N97), and stumbling in its initial launch of the Ovi Store.
Despite shortcomings in Symbian S60 (where apps and settings are located appears to have been chosen at random) and a wildly inconsistent touch experience, the 5800 and N97 have sold over 10 million units. Nokia has sold well over 100 million Symbian S60 phones overall, which puts it in a classic case of what Clayton Christensen calls the Innovator’s Dilemma: Nokia’s existing customers are happy with S60, so Nokia has resisted cannibalizing it. However, the iPhone may have launched without 3G or corporate email, but Apple keeps adding features with each new version, so when S60 users are ready to buy a new phone, they are increasingly picking one from Apple or one of Apple’s competitors. (It is also worth noting that arguments against cannibalizing S60 can only be made for Europe – in the U.S., S60 has never had any traction whatsoever.)
The solution to the Innovator’s Dilemma is to fund skunkworks development or a spin-off that attacks the new technology on its own terms. While initially planned as a way to get Nokia’s feet wet in open source software, Nokia does have another OS, Maemo Linux, that it has been quietly using for its line of Internet tablets (770, N800, and N810). At Nokia World in early September, Nokia announced Maemo 5 and the N900, the first Maemo phone. When I first saw Maemo 5 demonstrated just ahead of Nokia World, my first reaction was to question why Nokia would limit Maemo to pricey, high end devices. After all, S60 isn’t competitive, and Maemo looks really, really cool. Why not just kill S60 and switch to Maemo?
After playing with a production N900 for the past couple of weeks, I have discovered the answer: Maemo is nowhere near ready for mainstream consumers.
There was reason for my initial optimism: the OS has power to spare; it is basically a desktop Linux system in a tiny package. Maemo can handle multiple live apps minimized to little cards (similar to Palm’s webOS); the browser is unadulterated Mozilla code and includes support for a full implementation of Flash 9. The N900 has a high resolution 800
Related Posts
Subscribe to Feed…
 |
|
|
Follow Us…
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
