Nok Nok Nokia-ing on heaven's door
A rather sombre mood seemed to pervade the Symbian Exchange and Exposition tradeshow in London's Earls Court this week, with what appeared to be just a handful of visitors plodding their way around a series of lackluster exhibit booths.
Unlike last year, neither Nokia, Samsung nor Sony Ericsson had any shiny new products to unveil, and even Nokia's oldest Symbian allies seemed to be teetering towards touting the benefits of other smartphone operating systems, like rival Google Android.
The problem, HEXUS heard time and again, is that Symbian isn't exactly the easiest of environments to develop for, with many app makers finding it a tad counterintuitive and fiddly.
Not only that, but as the smartphone space starts to explode, Apple and Google's offerings continue to conquer new territory, with the demand for Android and iPhone app developers on the up. Symbian, on the other hand, seems to be stuck in a bit of a rut, despite the fact it's used on almost every Nokia mobile available.
But Bjorn Wigforss, senior marketing manager of Nokia's business and market development technology platforms (pictured below) doesn't agree that Symbian is under threat from other Operating Systems, stressing to HEXUS that Nokia still has the advantage as "Symbian was the first smartphone platform."
