Google’s Android Ousts Nokia, Symbian From Smartphones Top Spot

Oliver Haslam — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:55:12 +0000

Reuters reports that for the first time in over ten years, Nokia’s Symbian is no longer the world’s number one smartphone platform. The new king? Google’s Android.

In the fourth quarter, phone makers sold 32.9 million Android-equipped phones globally, roughly seven times more than the year-earlier quarter, compared with Symbian’s sales of 31 million, according to Research firm Canalys.

Of course it should probably come as no great surprise that a free, multi-manufacturer operating system is shipping more units than one running on just the single company’s hardware. That said though, this is without doubt the start of a new era and one that could possibly spell the end of Nokia as we know it.

With hit hardware like the Samsung Galaxy S line along with a rash of hardware coming in 2011, Android shows no sign of slowing down. With each new OS release comes new features, more bells and whistles and a bit more spit and polish. Currently Google claims over 300,000 devices are being activated each and every day, so it’s safe to say sales aren’t going to slow soon. Now it’s down to the hardware manufacturers to produce the hardware to go along with the OS.

Meanwhile the folks over at Nokia haven’t had it quite so good. In just over 2 years since Google launched Android, Nokia has seen its market share slump from almost 50% to less than 31%.

With new Chief Executive Stephen Elop at the helm, the former Swedish giants will be hoping to start moving in the right direction sooner rather than later. Could that include the use of Android on its handsets? That’s the rumor going around the tech blogs over the last few weeks and few could argue against it. Nokia needs a more modern OS for its class-filled hardware and Google’s offering is getting better each release.

A match made in heaven perhaps?

Is it game over for Microsoft in mobile?

Taimur Asad — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:53:26 +0000

The era of PCs which we have so used to grown up on is vanishing fast. Mobile phones today have become more personal devices than they ever have been in the past. Its amazing to see how in the last few years mobile phones evolved with great strides. Mobile phone OS manufacturers like Nokia, Apple and now Google have been there right in front to spot this upcoming change but unfortunately Microsoft has been too slow to identify the change because they are too desktop bound in milking their past successes with Windows and Office suites.

Mobile phone manufacturers ship more mobiles each year than the entire install base of Windows PCs which should be a cause of serious concern for Microsoft. Microsoft has no one to blame but themselves to have such a ~~week~~ weak ecosystem surrounding their current Windows Mobile division. I cant believe how they have screwed themselves up by allowing other manufacturers to go so far ahead of them that now even a catch up sounds a tough call. They have given Windows Mobile the least priorities in all fronts. Even their portable media player Zune gets more frequent updates and support than their Windows Mobile platform: Where is Silverlight for mobile? Support for Windows Mobile in XNA framework? or the ever so long taking desktop port of Internet Explorer 6 for mobile? Why cant the world’s largest software company understand that Mobile is the next big thing or is it already and they have got to get their strategies right before its too late for them.

Microsoft should really be thankful to HTC with their innovation on UI front for Windows Mobile devices that have kept their platform alive. If it wasn’t for them, Windows Mobile would have been long forgotten but then again there is only a limited stuff that manufacturers like HTC can do because they cant change the core of the OS. Windows Mobile, the OS in its current state needs lots of work to get back from the mess it has created for itself: Poor memory management, no integrated application store, no multi touch, unfriendly user interface to name a few.

For years, Microsoft has been playing a game of catch up to Google in online services. Slowly and steadily, they are now getting it right with Windows Live as it becomes more and more mature as we near Wave 3 release but they are still no where to be seen when it comes to search. Similarly they lost lots of ground in mobile world to Nokia and Apple and it wont be long before Google with Android joins the party too to hurt Microsoft even further. They need a complete overhaul of Windows Mobile division. A Gargantuan project that brings together their mobile platform to work seamlessly with their online services and cloud computing platforms.

I still remember Steve Ballmer’s infamous laugh over the iPhone when it was released back in 2007. It will be interesting to see what he says about it now that the iPhone has been such a success and everybody wants to have one. Microsoft executives really needs to do something fast about Windows Mobile situation or it wont be long before they find themselves to be no where.

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Google’s Android Ousts Nokia, Symbian From Smartphones Top Spot

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