Siemens dumps Symbian
November 09, 2005 [General]
During a press conference yesterday representatives of Siemens Mobile (now owned by BenQ) have confirmed:
... that they are not interested in further development of smartphones based on Symbian operating system. Instead they will be producing and selling phones based only on Microsoft's Windows Mobile. Of course Siemens Mobile / BenQ will be producing also phones based on proprietary (non-smartphone based, closed) operating systems, but as far as smartphones are concerned:[b] only such that will be based on Windows Mobile! The first one will be Siemens P50 (formerly known as BenQ P50) but more is coming.
There are many reasons why it is bad business decision for mobile phone manufacturers to make Symbian phones but among top reasons may be: a) fact that given manufacturer must compete with Nokia on Nokia's terms and since Nokia spends millions of USD on marketing, such competing can't succeed - it is like fighting fire with fire - it simply doesn't work and one needs to fight fire with water and one needs to use Windows Mobile! ... or b) fact that by using Symbian one is directly supporting main competitor.
Please note also that although Samsung has not dumped Symbian yet, it is producing its most advanced (Wi-Fi, hard disks) smartphones only with Windows Mobile. On the other hand Palm has clearly denied that it will pick Symbian for upcoming Treos. Increasingly phone vendors are realizing that Symbian is bad idea. Bad business decision.