Symbian losing their mojo

By WC Staff
last updated

Its been a year since we last ran the numbers and its time to find out how everyone weights in at the smartphone market scale. Overall the smartphone community has grown which is always good, but the surprising numbers are coming from Symbian.

Back in the day Symbian was holding in at a steady 65.6 in market share. Today they

WC Staff
WC Staff
5 Comments
  • It's going to be interesting to see which of the 4 major smartphone OS platforms (including the fruit phone, not Palm . . . they seem to be the dead man walking IMO) takes the biggest hit from Android . . . assuming anyone does. Logic would seem to dictate that it might be WM, but I'm not so sure it won't be Symbian.
    The pressure's on WM7 to be the real deal (even though a lot of MS people seem to indicate that WM8 is going to be the next MAJOR change for the OS; IMO that would be waiting too long.) Despite the fashionable nature by the tech world to bash Microsoft's core/bellcow products, they've actually got some excellent products and services in their younger market segments - Xbox, Xbox Live, Zune, Media Center, Live services (Mesh/FolderShare/Maps/..), etc. But all these services are largely disconnected from one another, and particularly from WinMo. That needs to change in a hurry.
  • I'm confused. According to the numbers Engadget posted the other day, Symbian was still gaining users. It may have been a small amount but it was still gaining.
  • Well, judging from the fact that it Win Mob who have taken the biggest hit from RIM's increased share it is only fair to assume that the same platform will feel the pinch should the "fruit" phone, android and RIM continue to increase their market share, assuming of course that Android does in fact make any inroads which is a moot point. I always discount Symbian as I reckon about 85% of their sales are to people who have no idea that the o/s on their nokia, or whatever it is, is actually called Symbian. There's only going to be one loser here chaps...and the trend has started already.
  • I'm confused. According to the numbers Engadget posted the other day, Symbian was still gaining users. It may have been a small amount but it was still gaining.
    Gaining users but losing market share = growing more slowly than the market.
  • Well, judging from the fact that it Win Mob who have taken the biggest hit from RIM's increased share
    WM market share increased (Q2 2008 vs Q2 2007) it is only fair to assume that the same platform will feel the pinch should the "fruit" phone, android and RIM continue to increase their market share, assuming of course that Android does in fact make any inroads which is a moot point.
    WM will probably have lower market share in the current quarter because Q3 2008 vs Q2 2008 iPhone will show a massive increase (probably around 10-fold). The interesting thing in the current quarter is from where the iPhone is 'stealing' most of its sales (it won't be only from other smartphone platforms of course). Personally I doubt Android will have much impact on global figures this year but clearly the form factor at least of that grotesque T-Mobile thing implies competition with similar WM devices.