No Symbian news today, or at least I haven’t find any. 
So, I’ve decided to blog about the thing I was thinking for some time – the future of Symbian series 90. Let’s roll…
So far, the only device which supports series 90 is Nokia 7710. Nokia used to promote this phone heavily in all the media (I’ve seen their CNN ad/sponsorship). And, I like it. But will Nokia continue to pursue this platform – it’s hard to tell. Some ideas:
- Nokia could use the S90 platform for their new communicators. The lack of stylus can be annoying in the long run. This, of course, would make S80 platform obsolete.
- Nokia could discontinue to use S90 platform and switch to UIQ. Sounds pretty unlikely, since they haven’t used UIQ on any other phone.
- Finally, Nokia could dump S90 platform, and pursue their Linux platform, Maemo, used in Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Interesting idea, but it could lead to dumping the S80 as well, leaving only the S60 platform.
It’s unlikely that S90 has any future. There are not that many applications for it and after the Nokia’s success with 770, I think it will be discontinued. Maemo mistral 2.0 roadmap is now available and what I’m certain is that we will see is some kind of better 770 device in the near future.
Maybe I’m wrong, but one thing is certain – Nokia do want to ride the open-source wave. After all, that’s the only alternative to Microsoft which spends millions to promote their new Windows Mobile. On the other hand, no one wants to dump something (technology) that’s already on place. How about S60 with the stylus support? I’m all for it. 🙂