5 ms·

Platform sunk (cost): What is the value of a quarter billion Symbian users?

13 points by atularora 16y ago

fleitz 16y ago
The value of them is less than 1 million WinMo phone users, when those quarter billion people replace their phones if Nokia doesn't have a compelling offer they will lose them to competitors. The article looks to the past rather than the future. We are on the brink of a revolution in computing, it's 1984 out there. Looking to the past will not give you answers as to the future right now. Nokia was once a tire company and before that a pulp mill (Nokian still makes the best winter tires), if anyone has the courage and conviction to reinvent themselves it's Nokia. Symbian is sold on low margins. If Nokia was doing so well on Symbian why did they replace their CEO? Symbian may have been a smart phone platform in 2005, but it is no longer. I haven't seen anything impressive on Symbian, and of the features that Symbian does have that others don't I don't see anything compelling enough to give up the App Store. iOS / Android / WinPhone 7 have mind share, and Blackberry has the corporate market which is kind of like IE, you'd like to ignore it but there are simply too damn many people willing to fork over cash to do it.
- divtxt 16y ago
  Absolutely right. As one of those quarter billion, Symbian is the OS on my phone, but it is no platform.
- tygorius 16y ago
  Yep, brand name recognition and usage is not at all the same thing as brand name loyalty. As mentioned in a previous thread, Nokia's market share has been dropping at the same time as the absolute size of the market has been growing. Somehow I doubt there are a lot of Nokia users who look at an iPhone and think, "Too bad. If only it ran Symbian OS ..."
  - fleitz 16y ago
    That's one of the really interesting things about the Android market, when I talk to most normal people they describe their phone as Android rather than the Motorola, HTC, etc.
foobarbazetc 16y ago
The number of Symbian users means absolutely nothing, because they're not worth anything as they're not buying into an ecosystem. The Symbian devices sold are basically 'done' -- they'll never improve, and the person using them is basically never going to buy a single app or a piece of content for them. A much better comparison would be total revenue of the Ovi Store against all the other stores. That means something. I'll make this analogy: I own an electronic door bell. It's made by a large multinational company who probably have sold way more than 200M of these -- but they just make widgets, and who gives a shit? That doesn't make it a viable platform. The vast majority of Nokia phones running Symbian are just a door bell. They make calls and do the job, but that's about it.
- rkwz 16y ago
  >>A much better comparison would be total revenue of the Ovi Store against all the other stores. Here you go- http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20032012-37.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20032012-37.html
  - foobarbazetc 16y ago
    That the Ovi Store is pulling in more revenue than the Android Market is insane. :) That says a lot about the sorry state of the Android Market, though. Would have been nice to see some Windows Phone Marketplace numbers in there too. Those Ovi Store numbers were probably quite encouraging to Microsoft. :)
- uytghjhgf 16y ago
  A phone that makes phone calls - how ridiculous
  - foobarbazetc 16y ago
    If that's all your phone does and that's your objective then great. Congratulations: you've won. But you're also stuck in 2007. If your objective is to make boatloads of money on a mobile ecosystem, that's not going to help.
  - 16y ago
teyc 16y ago
I asked a few people around office who had stylish-looking Nokias and asked what they were doing with them. Turns out no one is looking to buy apps. All they wanted was a solid phone for phone calls. A quarter billion Symbians users who bring nothing, create nothing and buy nothing in the ecosystem is worth zilch, I'm afraid.
Geee 16y ago
Nokia plans to ship 150 million Symbian devices still and updates and support continue for a couple of years, so it's not going anywhere in a while. With that user base I'd believe it's still a viable platform to develop for.

13 points by atularora 16y ago

The value of them is less than 1 million WinMo phone users, when those quarter billion people replace their phones if Nokia doesn't have a compelling offer they will lose them to competitors. The article looks to the past rather than the future. We are on the brink of a revolution in computing, it's 1984 out there. Looking to the past will not give you answers as to the future right now. Nokia was once a tire company and before that a pulp mill (Nokian still makes the best winter tires), if anyone has the courage and conviction to reinvent themselves it's Nokia. Symbian is sold on low margins. If Nokia was doing so well on Symbian why did they replace their CEO? Symbian may have been a smart phone platform in 2005, but it is no longer. I haven't seen anything impressive on Symbian, and of the features that Symbian does have that others don't I don't see anything compelling enough to give up the App Store. iOS / Android / WinPhone 7 have mind share, and Blackberry has the corporate market which is kind of like IE, you'd like to ignore it but there are simply too damn many people willing to fork over cash to do it.

divtxt 16y ago
Absolutely right. As one of those quarter billion, Symbian is the OS on my phone, but it is no platform.
tygorius 16y ago
Yep, brand name recognition and usage is not at all the same thing as brand name loyalty. As mentioned in a previous thread, Nokia's market share has been dropping at the same time as the absolute size of the market has been growing. Somehow I doubt there are a lot of Nokia users who look at an iPhone and think, "Too bad. If only it ran Symbian OS ..."
- fleitz 16y ago
  That's one of the really interesting things about the Android market, when I talk to most normal people they describe their phone as Android rather than the Motorola, HTC, etc.

foobarbazetc 16y ago

The number of Symbian users means absolutely nothing, because they're not worth anything as they're not buying into an ecosystem. The Symbian devices sold are basically 'done' -- they'll never improve, and the person using them is basically never going to buy a single app or a piece of content for them. A much better comparison would be total revenue of the Ovi Store against all the other stores. That means something. I'll make this analogy: I own an electronic door bell. It's made by a large multinational company who probably have sold way more than 200M of these -- but they just make widgets, and who gives a shit? That doesn't make it a viable platform. The vast majority of Nokia phones running Symbian are just a door bell. They make calls and do the job, but that's about it.

rkwz 16y ago
>>A much better comparison would be total revenue of the Ovi Store against all the other stores. Here you go- http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20032012-37.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20032012-37.html
- foobarbazetc 16y ago
  That the Ovi Store is pulling in more revenue than the Android Market is insane. :) That says a lot about the sorry state of the Android Market, though. Would have been nice to see some Windows Phone Marketplace numbers in there too. Those Ovi Store numbers were probably quite encouraging to Microsoft. :)
uytghjhgf 16y ago
A phone that makes phone calls - how ridiculous
- foobarbazetc 16y ago
  If that's all your phone does and that's your objective then great. Congratulations: you've won. But you're also stuck in 2007. If your objective is to make boatloads of money on a mobile ecosystem, that's not going to help.
- 16y ago

teyc 16y ago

I asked a few people around office who had stylish-looking Nokias and asked what they were doing with them. Turns out no one is looking to buy apps. All they wanted was a solid phone for phone calls. A quarter billion Symbians users who bring nothing, create nothing and buy nothing in the ecosystem is worth zilch, I'm afraid.

Geee 16y ago

Nokia plans to ship 150 million Symbian devices still and updates and support continue for a couple of years, so it's not going anywhere in a while. With that user base I'd believe it's still a viable platform to develop for.