Nokia Ditches Symbian, Maemo leads [N-Series]

Nokia has long been embracing Symbian. The fact comes from it’s acquisition of Symbian. But as industry saw rivals like iPhone, Nokia decided to move on. As one of the moves, they have open sourced most of Symbian.

And these days we see a choice between Symbian and Maemo on most N-series. Fortunately, things are starting to become a bit more clear, Maemo’s marketing team  meet-up in London last night, declared future for Maemo.

Nokia will drop Symbian S60 from all of its flagship N-series consumer devices in favor of Maemo. Apparently, Nokia has been pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic response to the N900 OS even though the enthusiast package is not quite ready for mass-market appeal. However, the transition won’t be instantaneous as anyone with an N900 (and a clear mind) can attest — the OS, services, and apps just can’t compare to the mature S60 platform regardless of Maemo 5’s superior user experience.

The transition will be a gradual one with further Symbian-based N-Series handsets already in development.  Whilst the N900 was acknowledged to be a ‘bridge’ device firmly aimed at the developer and enthusiast community, subsequent devices will target the mass-market and Maemo-based devices will grow to fill all of Nokia’s flagship range by 2012. There are no current plans for Maemo devices in the new video-focused X-Series range or popular E-Series enterprise range, but Nokia had been surprised by the enthusiasm with which the N900 and the latest incarnation of Maemo have been received so further expansion isn’t out of the question.

‘Maemo Select’, the current community-portal for Maemo applications, will initially run alongside Nokia’s Ovi store, which is due to launch for the N900 via a software update next month.  However, in the longer term it too will be retired leaving only the Ovi Store as the official Nokia source for free and paid applications promoted on Symbian and Maemo devices.

As such, we’ll continue to see N-Series handsets already in development pop with S60 on board alongside mass-market Maemo devices as the platform matures to the point that Nokia can make the full switch by 2012. Looking at the current scenario, I won’t be surprised if Nokia endsup adding Android to its cart .