Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Nokia ditches Symbian name, next version just called Nokia Belle

The company struggles to keep consumers interested in the OS, while ramping up the use of Windows Phone

The next version of Nokia's Symbian OS will be called Nokia Belle, the company said ina blog post on Wednesday.

Since Nokia made the decision to go with Microsoft's Windows Phone, the company has made a number of Symbian-related announcements. Symbian is important to Nokia because the company is dependent on the sales of Symbian-based smartphones until it ships larger volumes of Windows Phones, which won't be until next year.

"The announcement underlines the difficulties Nokia is having when trying to convince consumers to buy Symbian-based phones, and that the company thinks Nokia is a stronger brand" said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight.

Consumers bought 19.5 million Symbian-based smartphones during the third quarter, giving the OS a 17 percent market share. That compares to 29.5 million units and a 36.3 percent market share during the same period in 2010, according to market research company Gartner.

That still makes it the second largest smartphone OS, after Android. Smartphones based on Symbian are still popular in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Gartner said.

The blog post doesn't elaborate on why Nokia made the change, and the company didn't reply to questions concerning the thinking behind the move.

Earlier this year, Nokia also decided to abandon its Ovi mobile services brand.

Upgraded versions of the phone models N8, C7 and C6-01 have now started their journey from the factories to the shops with Nokia Belle preinstalled, arriving first in China, then around the world, according to the blog post.

Starting in February 2012, Nokia will release the software update to existing customers, it said.

Belle was announced in August, and includes more home screens, which have been increased from three to six, and a pull-down menu to access notifications.

Widgets for email, music, favorite contacts and the calendar have also been redesigned and now come in five different sizes. The lock screen will tell users about missed calls, inbox messages and other information. Nokia has also improved the user interface for multitasking, it said at the time.

Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: CCS, Gartner, Microsoft, Nokia, Symbian
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: consumer electronics, mobile, Mobile OSes, Nokia, smartphones
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • A Governance Guide for Hybrid SharePoint Migrations
    Cloud-based computing represents a powerful new option for managing enterprise content, offering increased flexibility, efficiency, and reduced cost for IT infrastructure, data storage, and applications. However, for a variety of business and technical reasons, most organisations will take a phased approach to adopting cloud-based services, which will require them to continue to maintain their on-premises SharePoint environments during the transition. This white paper, written by Chris Beckett from SharePoint Bits, discusses some of the benefits and risks of hybrid SharePoint deployments, and presents governance considerations that are essential for ensuring a successful migration.
    Learn more »
  • Leveraging the Service Catalog to Scale Your MSP Business
    When assessing an MSP’s maturity and prospects, one question provides more insights than any other: “What’s in your service catalog?” A well-defined service catalog can set the framework for growth. The lack of a service catalog can significantly impede an MSP’s ability to scale. This paper explores why the service catalog is so vital, and provides some practical guidelines MSPs can apply in order to ensure their service catalog provides maximum utility and benefit.
    Learn more »
  • Work Life Web 2011
    The 2011 WorkLifeWeb research shows that, while the new social Web is a potential tool for corporate success, there are ‘social media growing pains’ in evidence among both frontline workers and their managers.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.