http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=Nokia+Symbian
http://androidcommunity.com/nokia-partners-with-android-too-so-says-eldar-murtazin-20110212/
http://www.slashgear.com/google-offers-sacked-nokia-engineers-a-lifeline-11132817/
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/for-nokia-design-will-be-key-to-future/
(see also tale of three cultures, by me)
http://hothardware.com/News/Nokia-Employees-Walk-Out-After-Symbian-Deemed-Dead/
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/02/11/nokia-employees-stage-mass-walkout-to-protest-microsoft-agreement-report/
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/media/item/12585_AAS_Insight_153_Nokia_strategy.php
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/12584_Nokias_new_strategy_and_struct.php
Back last April, in advance of the iPad launch, I was interviewed by the BBC about it, and summed up my thoughts in "Beyond the iPad". It wasn't bad, as prophesy goes, except in respect to Symbian, which I coumted as an iOS competitor with goods enough to become a competitor to Android among open mobile OSes, and from which I hoped to see a tablet, soon enough. I was consulting the Symbian Foundation at the time, and had high hopes for the OS. Now Symbian.org redirects to a blog post -- the Foundation's last -- explaining that it "would ramp down its operational activities as a result of changes in global economic and market conditions."
It gets worse.
Symbian is Nokia's baby, and Nokia has been getting its butt royally kicked by pretty much everybody in the Smartphone business.
Apple did a very creative job of opening two markets -- smartphones and tablets -- with a verticalized strategy. Brilliant shit. Very Steve.
Google did a very creative job of walking through the door Apple opened, and expanding both markets horizontally, with Android, which is chemo for both operator and OEM silos. (Those are what in the telco trade they call the likes of Verizon and Nokia.)
There is far more territory in the wide open horizontal frontiers than in Apple's silo, even if it's 200 stories high and five blocks wide. Example from Hiawatha Bray today in the Boston Globe:
Pretty cool.
Microsoft may have a zillion .Net developers, but Android is Ice Nine. It's the Andromeda Strain. It's the Black Swan. In fact Google is black swannish all over the place. They throw big genetic bombs into the market's ecosystems. Mutant life forms emerge (e.g. the Atrix, above). Alas, Google is also getting to be a big dull company now. Not all-dull, but more dull than it used to be. And vulnerable if the advertising gravy train runs out. Getting rid of Schmidt was a great move, and long overdue.
Lunch pad? Back last April, just ahead of the iPad launch, I wrote Beyond the iPad, here. It wasn't bad, as prophesy goes, except in respect to Symbian. I was consulting the Symbian Foundation at the time, and had high hopes for the OS. Now Symbian.org redirects to a blog post -- the Foundation's last -- explaining that it "would ramp down its operational activities as a result of changes in global economic and market conditions." This wasn't news. The writing was on the Web's wallat least a month before that.
The Many Brilliant Layers Of Vic Gundotra’s Nokia-Exposing, Microsoft-Bashing Tweet,
Eric S. Raymond. Why Android Matters. The Smartphone Wars: Nokia's Suicide Note.
Disruptive Broadband slides. Project Cauã. John "maddog" Hall.
Android leadss
Apple did a very creative job of opening two markets -- smartphones and tablets -- with a verticalized strategy. Brilliant shit. Very Steve.
Google did a very creative job of walking through the door Apple opened, and expanding both markets horizontally, with Android, which is chemo for both operator and OEM silos. (Those are what in the telco trade they call the likes of Verizon and Nokia.)
There is far more territory in the wide open horizontal frontiers than in Apple's silo, even if it's 200 stories high and five blocks wide. Example from Hiawatha Bray today in the Boston Globe:
Pretty cool.
Microsoft may have a zillion .Net developers, but Android is Ice Nine. It's the Andromeda Strain. It's the Black Swan. In fact Google is black swannish all over the place. They throw big genetic bombs into the market's ecosystems. Mutant life forms emerge (e.g. the Atrix, above). Alas, Google is also getting to be a big dull company now. Not all-dull, but more dull than it used to be. And vulnerable if the advertising gravy train runs out. Getting rid of Schmidt was a great move, and long overdue.