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Symbian: five reasons why Nokia's OS is unpopular

Symbian: five reasons why Nokia's OS is unpopular

Was there a boy? How can we talk about the unpopularity of smartphones based on Symbian, if from year to year the volume of their sales is growing, as well as the number of different models. Let me cite the following figures: in the third quarter of 2009, Nokia sold 16.4 million smartphones, and in the same period of 2010 already 26.5 million units. So far, Nokia has only Symbian in its arsenal, since the sales of the Nokia N900 were so modest that no research company has singled out this product and operating system separately. Sales growth should mean product popularity and other opinions are lightweight. The numbers speak for themselves. Is not it?

Unfortunately for Nokia, the growth in sales does not mean the popularity of Symbian, but reflects the strength of the Nokia brand and the growth of the smartphone market in general. Most of the buyers of Symbian devices do not even suspect that they have purchased a smartphone. What is the reason that the company that created the de facto smartphone market is constantly losing its share in it? A year earlier it was 37.8%, today it is 34.4%, and it continues to decline. Let's try to figure out the root causes of company failure and user dissatisfaction together.

REASON # 1. MOBILE COMPUTER FROM NOKIA

Conduct a simple experiment. Please take a few minutes to ask those around you this question: "What does Nokia make?" For the purity of the experience, after receiving an answer, one can and should ask additional questions: “What does HTC produce? Apple? " Try this experiment.

So you are back with answers. I can't read minds at a distance, but I guess the answers were: Nokia makes phones; NTS smartphones or telephones; a Apple computers, iPod, iPad, iPhone. The more people you ask questions, the more often the answers will match the above. Why is this so?

Nokia pioneered the European mobile phone market alongside Ericsson and Motorola. For many Europeans, the mobile phone has been associated with Nokia for many years, the share of Nokia's sales worldwide did not fall below 30 percent (share of the 3rd quarter of 2010). And this is with a market volume of more than one billion phones annually. Huge, mind-blowing numbers. Of course, the name Nokia has not become synonymous with a mobile phone, as the name Xerox has become synonymous with copiers. But it is the strongest brand on the phone market.

Buyers of Nokia products think they are buying phones. They have no association with other devices - computers, mobile computers, multimedia computers, or anything else. For example, Apple phone buyers are firmly convinced that they are buying an iPhone. The company has placed its bet on a brand name for the device. Secondly, Apple iPhone buyers will say that it is a smartphone or a phone. But they will never call it a computer. Likewise, buyers of NTS will call their device a smartphone, since the NTS brand is associated with these products by the mass consumer. But buyers of NTS will not call their phone a computer. In any language, the designation of a mobile computer has long been associated with laptops of all stripes. At the same time, the device that rings is always the telephone.

Why did Nokia abandon such a strong association? The reason is Symbian. In 2006, Nokia decided to create a whole line of flagship models, each of which would offer the best performance in its field. For example, Nokia N93 was intended for video shooting, N91 for listening to music, N73 for photos. The company was ahead of the market and dictated the fashion for smartphones.

The next step is the release of Nokia N95, which was positioned as a multimedia computer. The all-in-one device became popular in no time. And before the release of the Apple iPhone, it could be safely called the best smartphone on the market. The reign of the Nokia N95 lasted for about a year. But the prefix "multimedia computer" never caught on.It was called, as a rule, a smartphone, much less often a telephone. In the minds of buyers, this model did not differ from other devices based on the Symbian platform. The same menu, the same operating principle, slightly better technical characteristics, a different form factor. The task of Nokia's marketers was to make this product distinguishable from the background of other smartphones of the company, and at the same time to show that it is out of competition with Sony Ericsson smartphones (touchscreen devices on UIQ), which were rapidly gaining popularity that year.

In December 2008, the company changed its name again: now the “multimedia” characteristic has lost all meaning - all smartphones are multimedia. Nokia's flagship N97 is now called a "mobile computer". But buyers still do not have such an association, and they call the N97 and subsequent models smartphones or phones in the old fashioned way.

Nokia has lost its ideological advantage. Trying to impose a new term “multimedia computer” on the market, and later “mobile computer”, they blurred the concept of “smartphone” for themselves.

Apple took advantage of this. When, in 2008, unexpectedly for everyone, she announced that the Apple iPhone is not a phone, as previously stated, but a smartphone, and you need to approach it accordingly. The change in the type designation of the device is a unique phenomenon. Apart from Apple, no other company has done this trick. Apple realized a simple truth: people want to buy "smartphones". They are ripe for choosing such a device, not yet understanding what it is. The term “smartphone” appeared in my minds. And it was necessary to offer them such a device. Apple was able to do this, while Nokia was trying to sell "mobile computers". And without much success. Unfortunately, the market leader lost in ideology and was unable to seize the moment.

REASON # 2. NOKIA AS A REFERENCE POINT AND A LEADER OF IDEAS

The most popular Nokia solutions are S40 phones. These are ordinary phones that each of us has come across in our lives more than once. They may not look as sophisticated today, but until 2006 these machines were the best on the market without any discounts. Of course, there were popular models, successful and not very successful, but in general the entire platform was innovative and Nokia relied on it.

For example, Sony Ericsson, creating their best models, focused on the S40. That is why, for example, we got multitasking in ordinary phones on the A100 and A200 platforms. Symbian's success was a matter of the future, while sales were driven by conventional phones. Competitors for Nokia products were devices based on UIQ (touchscreen smartphones Motorola, Sony Ericsson, also Symbian, but of a different variety), as well as various devices running Windows Mobile.

It is important for every manufacturer to have a starting point, to focus on the best solutions in order to develop. Until 2007, Nokia was the market leader in ideas, it set the starting point. Therefore, for the development of Symbian (the S60 platform), Nokia primarily took into account its experience. And they took into account the developments of UIQ, as well as Windows Mobile. It turned out great - the pace of development of the S60 (the Symbian platform in the Nokia version) remained high, the competitors were far behind. And they could not offer anything comparable. This made it possible to position Symbian-based devices as the most functional and receive the highest possible mark-up for them. There were no real competitors for S60-based models from Nokia.

The release of the Apple iPhone set a new benchmark: for the first time, Nokia's leadership in one of the segments was not just questioned. The company did not have an adequate and similar answer. As a result, Apple iPhone became the ideological flagship of the touchscreen phone market, and a number of solutions from this model were copied and continue to be copied by other manufacturers. The boom of touchscreen phones has not passed and today, the segment continues to grow. At the same time, Apple was able to profit more than Nokia, Samsung and LG combined due to only one touchscreen phone.

It took Nokia over a year to prepare a response. All efforts were devoted to creating a version of Symbian that works with touch screens, and in late 2008 it appeared on the Nokia 5800.An excellent model in terms of price / quality ratio, it quickly became one of the best selling. But it was not a competitor to the iPhone: Nokia was afraid to oppose a product that was one of the most coveted on the market. And again they missed the initiative.

The limited number of developers did not allow Nokia to create both a touch version of Symbian and continue to actively develop conventional smartphones. The release of the Apple iPhone mixed all plans and made it necessary to respond to the emerging threat, for which the company was not at all ready. All of its business processes were focused on what Nokia sets the standard. And already other companies follow them. The changed conditions of the game were a strong blow to the company's strategy.

REASON # 3. NOKIA CREATES SYMBIAN FOUNDATION

In 2007, Nokia had not yet squeezed into the sales of Nokia, but it was already clear that a boom in touch devices was ahead. And Nokia alone will not have enough strength to develop this direction. The company, possessing the strongest developments in Symbian, chose this OS for development, which was the right decision. But instead of developing Symbian on its own, Nokia considered it necessary to involve its direct competitors in this process. And make Symbian available to them and their influence. At that time, open source operating systems were seen as a threat to Symbian's future. The prevailing opinion in the market was that the development of such operating systems by joint efforts would accelerate the release of new products and that it was necessary to follow this course in order to survive. It was the fashion of the time.

In June 2008, the Symbian Foundation was born. This is a non-profit organization that was not responsible for the development of the OS, but for its standardization, application creation, PR and all issues related to the promotion. In total, about 40 companies have joined the Symbian Foundation. Including Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG.

The backbone of the Symbian Foundation was made up of people from Nokia. And very quickly a situation developed when it became clear that other manufacturers did not have advantages in creating their devices. The need to invest in the development of Symbian, the profits from which mainly go to Nokia, did not take Samsung for granted. Samsung has made two attempts to create flagship devices based on Symbian: these are the i8910 HD models, and before that Innov8. At the time of release, these were devices with maximum performance. But Symbian was too closely associated with the Nokia brand. Sales were strong, but didn't even come close to Samsung's expectations. As a result, in 2009 Samsung abandoned the development of Symbian as a whole. In the summer of 2010, Sony Ericsson followed suit. LG did not use Symbian to launch mass products, nor did it take an active part in the work of the Symbian Foundation.

The result of the creation of the Symbian Foundation appeared in 2010. The refusal of Samsung and other companies to actively participate in the work of the organization led to the fact that Nokia laid off about 1,800 people responsible for the development of Symbian (both officials and developers).

From 2008 to 2010, Nokia lost time developing Symbian and allowed such an operating system as Android to grow and strengthen Apple's position. And all thanks to the fact that, having created the Symbian Foundation, delegated the rights to determine the future of Symbian outside. This is a huge mistake that cost not only two years, but also determined the course of business processes within Nokia, as well as the position of the company.

REASON # 4. DEVELOPERS AND NOKIA

Recently, it is often heard that Nokia's problem is the lack of the right ecosystem, for example, such as that of Apple. Often this is understood as the absence of a large number of independent developers who create games, programs, utilities. Also in the concept of an ecosystem is the presence of a convenient sales channel or download of these applications by the user.

Fun fact: Nokia was the first manufacturer in the world to create an ecosystem around a mobile phone. In 1995, Forum Nokia appeared - a structure within Nokia that interacts with developers and helps them create programs for the company's phones. In the same years, a prototype of the store for the Nokia communicator appeared, and later, Downloads, a catalog of applications.Before the advent of the Apple iPhone, Nokia could easily be considered the most popular mobile platform. Since all the developments were primarily for her, and only then for the phones of other companies. But the vast majority of programs are written in Java, which makes it easy to port them to phones from other manufacturers. Unfortunately, the tools for developing Symbian applications are complex. The app certification process scares off many developers. In the segment of Java applications, earnings are higher, the time required is less, and the market is huge.

Nokia believed that it would be able to switch developers to creating applications for Symbian devices at the moment when this market began to grow explosively. But that moment coincided with the arrival of both Android and iPhone, which attracted developers. Another example of Nokia's weakness in this area is the number of programs created for Windows Mobile and Symbian in the same time frame. The differences are orders of magnitude not in favor of Nokia.

It was difficult to program for Symbian before Qt appeared in late 2010. And Nokia didn’t work hard to fix the situation. For example, Forum Nokia has become a huge bureaucratic organization. Which fought for anything but popularization of Nokia as a mobile platform for independent developers. In terms of the number of loyal developers, Nokia is a de facto outsider on the market. This is despite the fact that Symbian is the leader in terms of sales and share. But developers prefer to make money on other platforms. A simple example: not many companies are looking for developers for Symbian, but it is almost impossible to find a programmer for Android. From 2009 to 2010, their salaries increased 2.3 times, and the qualifications of programmers dropped noticeably. This indicates a supply deficit. Unfortunately, Nokia has historically not worked with developer communities and has failed to engage them today.

The complexity of developing for Symbian, as well as the unpopularity of the platform among the developers, removes the competition. As a result, the prices for Symbian programs for the user are higher than those for other platforms. In October 2010, the Angry Birds game was released for Symbian ^ 3 for $ 5 in the OVI store. The same game on the Android platform is free (the developer pays for it by advertising within the game), for the Apple iPhone it costs $ 1. Lack of competition means little choice and high prices, which also negatively affects the development of Symbian. The inconvenience of the OVI branded application store, its illogicality, complexity and not always correct operation is just a consequence of the fact that Nokia does not pay enough attention to this area. Plus, there are no people who can create something comparable to the iTunes Store or Android Market. Unfortunately, in this area Nokia only copies other people's ideas, does not bring any novelty. And copies badly.

REASON # 5. CONSERVATISM AND INTERFACE

I love conservatism in certain things, for example, I adore the usual weight of a fountain pen or flipping through the pages of a paper book. But with regard to electronic devices, I have a different attitude: I am interested in seeing development. Many users do not understand development as complex functions inside phones or some other wisdom, but what they see every day is an interface.

At Nokia, time has stopped, as the company, having all the technical capabilities to change the interface, does not make any effort for this. It gets ridiculous. Huge budgets are spent researching what users dislike about their phones. For example, since December 2008, in many countries of the world, people unanimously say: "Switch languages ​​on the touch keyboard, like in the Apple iPhone, in one click." Two years have passed, but a feature that requires one hour of work by a not very skilled programmer has never been implemented. Therefore, people spend a few clicks on switching languages, and each time they remember the Nokia programmers with a kind word.

If you pick up different Nokia S60 phones, you will find that the calculator can be in different folders, in different corners of the menu. Exactly the same for most other applications.Nokia has no menu continuity. Changing one Symbian smartphone to another, you cannot expect your programs to be in the same place. Their set hardly changes from model to model, but the location of the labels is different each time. In Apple iPhone, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG phones, the labels are always in the same places. You take the phone out of the box and there is no need to get used to it for a long time. Everything is familiar, everything is in its place.

Conservatism is good in certain situations. This is bad for the phone interface. There is no need to be eccentric, it is enough to do the same as with competitors. At least not worse. But for some reason Nokia doesn’t succeed. A tribute to their outdated traditions?

AND IN THE FOLLOWING

Ideas rule the world. The company that sets the benchmark always wins because all competitors copy it. Until 2007 Nokia was a leader not only in sales and profits, but, most importantly, it dominated in ideas. However, the arrival of the Apple iPhone brought fresh ideas. Then came Google with Android. And today, buyers look at Nokia and Symbian as something familiar and already quite conservative. A kind of old clothes, familiar, perhaps out of fashion. For a person accustomed to such clothes, nothing better can be found.

Whoever comes up with the strongest idea wins. Megahertz, megapixels and other equally fascinating things make no sense if they are separated from the idea. The user should understand that he has good product support, software and OS version updates, cheap third-party programs in huge quantities and a modern interface. These are the basics of the basics.

The release of Symbian ^ 3 in October 2010 with the first product, the N8, unfortunately proves that Nokia has fallen behind in ideas. And he will copy someone else's experience, that is, catch up, but not set the tone in this race. For example, they promise that in 2011 it will be possible to update the OS version for Symbian. Good news. But the development speed of Symbian is minimal due to the reasons described above. Nokia even refused to comply with its own deadlines. For example, Nokia planned to release Symbian ^ 3 six months earlier, but did not have time. This is the problem of resources, which the company has a limited number of. And we are not talking about money, but about heads that have ideas, as well as people who are able to translate these ideas into reality.

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