Comments on: S60 Platform Dying http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/2007/01/19/s60-platform-dying/ Ripping mobility from the clutches of telecom Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:15:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Wolfram Herzog http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/2007/01/19/s60-platform-dying/#comment-82542 Wolfram Herzog Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:41:19 +0000 http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/?p=274#comment-82542 Yes, the Symbian OS is a nightmare in Programming if you are not used to it. Yes, the Symbian OS Plattform ist the most powerful mobile plattform. Yes, our company can master it, because we are doing it since the very beginning in 1997 but I have alos to say that Symbian or Nokia or someone else has permanently increased the size of the hurdles you have to jump over . The result is that there are more and more projects which should support Symbian but it is simply too expensive to make that complex development and so the Symbian OS plattform is left out. This is the danger that I see in the long term for Symbian. Yes, the Symbian OS is a nightmare in Programming if you are not used to it. Yes, the Symbian OS Plattform ist the most powerful mobile plattform.
Yes, our company can master it, because we are doing it since the very beginning in 1997 but I have alos to say that Symbian or Nokia or someone else has permanently increased the size of the hurdles you have to jump over . The result is that there are more and more projects which should support Symbian but it is simply too expensive to make that complex development and so the Symbian OS plattform is left out.
This is the danger that I see in the long term for Symbian.

]]> By: Andrea Trasatti http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/2007/01/19/s60-platform-dying/#comment-70238 Andrea Trasatti Mon, 22 Jan 2007 21:18:07 +0000 http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/?p=274#comment-70238 Mike, I have heard quite similar comments from companies willing to do Symbian. It is common that developers that are newly approaching Symbian (and I'm not saying simply the very first time) can't make the application work as they want OR they are not able to access some low-level API's and features. This is partly because Symbian wants to keep some API's reserved and partly because it's not so well documented or does not offer an SDK at the quality level of Windows. Nevertheless, I would say that if you want to develop a mass-market application for smartphones, Symbian is the preferred platform as it covers enterprise users (see E series), geeks and gadget-victims (see the N series) and a lof of people that buys them because they like them. I was VERY surprised right before Christmas, while walking around in Milan, hearing two girls saying they would buy a Symbian phone because it looked nice. My first thought that was it was big and heavy, but apparently they had a different opinion. Mike,
I have heard quite similar comments from companies willing to do Symbian. It is common that developers that are newly approaching Symbian (and I’m not saying simply the very first time) can’t make the application work as they want OR they are not able to access some low-level API’s and features.
This is partly because Symbian wants to keep some API’s reserved and partly because it’s not so well documented or does not offer an SDK at the quality level of Windows.

Nevertheless, I would say that if you want to develop a mass-market application for smartphones, Symbian is the preferred platform as it covers enterprise users (see E series), geeks and gadget-victims (see the N series) and a lof of people that buys them because they like them. I was VERY surprised right before Christmas, while walking around in Milan, hearing two girls saying they would buy a Symbian phone because it looked nice. My first thought that was it was big and heavy, but apparently they had a different opinion.

]]> By: miker http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/2007/01/19/s60-platform-dying/#comment-69536 miker Sat, 20 Jan 2007 01:53:28 +0000 http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/?p=274#comment-69536 Hey Rafe, thanks for the comments. I'm not going to disagree at all, you certainly have a much better handle on the market overall than I do. I'll just say that most of the activity that I've seen recently centers around open platforms, the more open generally the more activity. If I compare the developer community around the 770 to the developer community around S60 there's vastly different stuff going on. Unfortunately the 770 is just a toy. Yet still it has a fantastic community. I think that if the same openness existed for a phone platform it would be explosive. It could be a US vs Rest of the World thing. Recently even the Nokia boosters in the US that I've found as a support group have started dropping off. We're just not getting what we need over here. I think the most fantastic app for my phone is probably the Putty client. And that shouldn't be. But whenever I try for something more, podcasting, or transcoding videos to download, or even feed reading offline, I rarely find something that really serves my needs. Hey Rafe, thanks for the comments. I’m not going to disagree at all, you certainly have a much better handle on the market overall than I do. I’ll just say that most of the activity that I’ve seen recently centers around open platforms, the more open generally the more activity. If I compare the developer community around the 770 to the developer community around S60 there’s vastly different stuff going on. Unfortunately the 770 is just a toy. Yet still it has a fantastic community. I think that if the same openness existed for a phone platform it would be explosive.

It could be a US vs Rest of the World thing. Recently even the Nokia boosters in the US that I’ve found as a support group have started dropping off. We’re just not getting what we need over here. I think the most fantastic app for my phone is probably the Putty client. And that shouldn’t be. But whenever I try for something more, podcasting, or transcoding videos to download, or even feed reading offline, I rarely find something that really serves my needs.

]]> By: Rafe http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/2007/01/19/s60-platform-dying/#comment-69495 Rafe Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:41:56 +0000 http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/?p=274#comment-69495 Interesting perspective Mike. I wonder if there is a US / Europe difference. I don't think the general shortage of Symbian developers helps much. I can't say I've heard this. I have heard more - we're doing J2ME to cover S60. I think part of the reasons for the barriers to entry are the because Symbian is the only mobile platform to have gone truly mass market in numbers terms. Symbian didn't want to errect barriers, but its licensees (or rather the licensees) customers did. I also think we will see more things done to help counter balance this for developers. In terms of stagnation - I think there's more going on around S60 that there ever has been. The difference is that the ability to fiddle on a hobbyist level is not there quite so much. Interesting perspective Mike. I wonder if there is a US / Europe difference. I don’t think the general shortage of Symbian developers helps much. I can’t say I’ve heard this. I have heard more - we’re doing J2ME to cover S60.

I think part of the reasons for the barriers to entry are the because Symbian is the only mobile platform to have gone truly mass market in numbers terms. Symbian didn’t want to errect barriers, but its licensees (or rather the licensees) customers did. I also think we will see more things done to help counter balance this for developers.

In terms of stagnation - I think there’s more going on around S60 that there ever has been. The difference is that the ability to fiddle on a hobbyist level is not there quite so much.

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