Nokia To Shift To Maemo Full Time?

No, there is no evidence that suggests this and Symbian is far too large to drop altogether. Still, there are several factors that might push Maemo into the future and Symbian into the past.

First of all, it is true that Nokia has admitted that they want to make their high-end Maemo-only in the coming years. Nokia said to a group of Maemo developers that by the year 2012, Symbian will be removed from all their high-end devices. A company does not state things like this unless they are serious. So we now know that the high-end will be driven by Maemo. [read]

But there is one major problem to phasing Symbian out – it has gotten too large. Symbian is not Nokia’s call alone, even though it is probably the largest maker of Symbian handsets. Symbian was made possible when multiple companies like NTT, DoCoMo and others came together with Nokia. The Symbian Foundation was founded only last year.

Nokia has said that Symbian will still drive their mid-range mass market products, so it won’t be quite as dead as we’ve been hoping for. Still, Symbian is clearly on the decline and Nokia knows that all too well.

Nokia is a company that has  worked really hard on the software front, unlike its rivals like Samsung and LG. But so far Nokia has not been able to create something that is anywhere close to the iPhone except the N900, which a very recent development.

With Symbian on the wane, it is understandable that they are looking for a replacement but going all lone ranger on everyone else is a bit of mistake. Trying to control your proprietary OS and the world around it is a bus that Apple has already taken up and gone on ahead. About 2 and a half years ahead. The rival camp has only one hope now and that is Android.

The Linux-based Maemo is popular with developers and that is probably because of its connection with Debian. But being mainly a hardware company, they do not have the clout Google has to make this possible. Besides, Google realized that the only way to combat something so very proprietary as the iPhone is to release something that is as open as the Android. While Apple holds a niche audience, take over the rest of the market. Be the everyday jeans and let Apple be the solution for the times when you go out.

Nokia is really good and making mass-market phones. They have proved that over and over again. In emerging countries, especially in Asia, their low-end phones reign supreme. Nokia knows where to compromise and where to invest to bring costs down.

Nokia’s business phones were well-loved too and they lost to the Blackberry only because of Blackberry’s enterprise server technology and the tight integration between that and the handset. Besides, RIM knows their corporate clients.

But everyone’s bleeding market share to the new kids – iPhone and Android. And Nokia should wake up and smell the touchscreen. If you are not Apple, you are better off with Android. At least Nokia is the world’s largest mobile handset maker. I shudder to even think of what Samsung is dreaming of with their Bada OS.

To be fair to Nokia, the N900 looks like a great phone. It has mostly sold out too I hear. Debian enthusiasts are many in number and they would definitely like to see Maemo succeed. So we are likely to see some great apps by 2012.

However, to be realistic here – Android and iPhone will be way ahead by that time. Apple now has more 100,000 apps now and even if the devs move on, they are likely to have about double that number. Android will probably have a similar number as iPhone does now. Windows Mobile will need something like Windows 7 but will still fall behind. As for Maemo, it will be so very niche that it will be hard to see in a pie chart.

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