Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NOK) Killing Symbian This Summer [REPORT]

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Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) will ship its last Symbian smartphones this summer, says a report from Financial Times. The decision to end the Symbian smartphones comes two years after the Finnish company switched to the Windows platform.

Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NOK) Killing Symbian This Summer [REPORT]

As per the report, the handset maker will not memorialize its final Symbian shipments with an announcement, partially due to the fact that some of the inventory still remains in few markets.

Nokia Corporation had been shipping Symbian smartphones

Despite the switch to the windows platform since 2011, Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) had been shipping Symbian smartphones but at a reduced pace.

Symbian was once the Android

Almost extinct, Symbian was once popular like Android is today. The open platform powered what can be called the first smartphone, Ericsson R380 (launched in 2000).

Symbian devices held around 44 percent of the market share in the first quarter of 2010, well ahead of the 19 percent of RIM, which was at the second place. However, back then the smartphone market was much smaller from presently booming smartphone market.

After the handset maker shifted the focus to Windows platform, Accenture was made responsible for the development of the Symbian in 2012. Also, Nokia trimmed the marketing budget allocation for Symbian.

As per the data from IDC, the Finnish company shipped 1.2 million Symbian smartphones last quarter, representing 0.6 percent of the 216 million devices, of which three-fourth were Android devices.

Symbian milestones

Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) 808 PureView was the company’s last smartphone based on Symbian, which was launched in mid-2012. The device with 41 megapixel camera and premium pricing failed to get expected response from carriers.

One of Nokia spokesperson told ZDNet that Nokia 808 was not in vain, “This phone extended the platform’s pioneering tradition, and acted as a bridge for the next wave of innovation now seen in our latest models, like the Lumia 925.”

Nokia 9210 Communicator, launched in June 2001, was the first phone from Nokia based on Symbian. The first phone in GSM markets had multimedia features in full color, with a full-keyboard to boot.

Then after a year, Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) came up with its first real Symbian phone, Nokia 7650, having S60 user interface. The device boasted the first integrated digital camera and offered polyphonic ringtones. The device became so popular that it appeared on the cover of the Economist magazine with a title “Computing’s new shape”.

Nokia 7710 was the first commercial phone launched in November 2004 running on Series 90, which was a new Symbian operating system (OS) platform from Nokia that was later integrated with S60.

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