Can Symbian effectively compete against other popular mobile operating systems such as iOS4 and Android?
Well, not according to senior Gartner analyst Nick Jones, who says that Symbian’s market share loss has significantly accelerated over recent months.
“The main reason Symbian is losing share is the user experience which isn’t competitive with Apple [iOS 4] or [Google’s] Android. Based on the early previews I’ve seen Symbian 3 looks to have polished a few of the rough edges, but doesn’t fix the problem,” Jones opined in a Gartner blog post.
“[There is] too much effort on stuff that really doesn’t matter. For example: Audio policy packages, WIFi direct, support for an ‘open cloud manifesto,’ better multitasking, multiple personalized home screens and HDMI connection to external TVs.”
Jones emphasized that new features would have little impact if consumers remained uninterested in purchasing Symbian-based devices.
“I think the Symbian foundation is just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and ignoring the Android iceberg ahead.
“[So] forget elegant architecture, forget better multitasking, forget release schedules that don’t deliver S4 devices with a new user experience until 2011. None of these matter.”
