Gartner report outlines Symbian's shaky future

Symbian continues to lose market share to the likes of Google Android and Apple iOS smartphones
Symbian continues to lose market share to the likes of Google Android and Apple iOS smartphones

A new report by market researchers at Gartner outlines how smartphone operating system Symbian is losing market-share at an ever-increasing rate, while claiming that the Symbian Foundation is "just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

While still the most popular smartphone OS in terms of market share, Symbian is floundering in terms of its attempt to find a coherent strategy to take on the growing popularity of competing operating systems such as RIM's BlackBerry, Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

Gartner will publish its market forecasts for the sector later this month, which will show the increasing rate at which Symbian is losing its leading share of the market.

Weak UI threatens Symbian survival

Gartner's Nick Jones says of the latest report: "If the weak UI [user interface] is threatening Symbian's very survival, the Foundation ought to be seriously worried, right? Wrong.

"I just looked on the Foundation web site and blogs at the roadmap and features for future releases. What I see is too much effort on stuff that really doesn't matter."

Apple has hit a few PR snags of its own recently, with the widely-reported problems with the new iPhone 4's reception signal causing the company to call an emergency press conference later this week.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has recently launched the beta for the development kit for devs that want to start to make apps for its forthcoming Windows Phone 7.

Via The Guardian

Adam Hartley