Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) said its final goodbyes to Symbian and MeeGo. The Symbian Signed Team announced their closure in a tweet on Thursday. Late last year, the Finnish tech giant announced the company’s decision to stop updating existing applications or offer new applications after the first of January 2014. This was during Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s acquisition of Nokia.
Nokia puts their focus on Asha
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V)’s next move is to put forth focus on their line of Asha phones.
The company shared the following message in October: “With the growing business opportunities available on the Asha and Windows Phone platforms, we have been reviewing our developer content programs to see how we can maximize our support to you, our developers. As a result of this review, we have decided to focus our support and investment in new content toward Asha and Windows Phone.”
The reason behind Symbian’s decline
Thanks to competition from Android and iOS, Symbian is no longer a value to Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V). It’s difficult to stay relevant when today’s tech consumer has more and better choices. So far, the Asha phone line is Nokia’s biggest success, most particularly in developing nations.
In other Nokia-related news, the company recently won a round of court battles against HTC Corp (TPE:2498) in which some of the latter’s products have been banned in the United Kingdom. Now the tech company is going after other HTCs in other European countries like France and Germany. Should Nokia decide to recall every infringing device, the company would have to post a bond of $68 million. HTC Corp (TPE:2498) will likely appeal the ruling.
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) added, “Today’s judgment is another significant milestone in our on-going dispute with HTC, enabling Nokia to enforce an injunction against the import and sale of all infringing HTC products in Germany, as well as to obtain damages for past infringement. This patent is also already in suit against HTC Corp (TPE:2498) in the UK.”
