Symbian not in the future plans of Nokia

With the alliance of Nokia and Microsoft to bring Windows Phone 7 to Nokia handsets, we initially thought that it will be developed in conjunction with their own Symbian OS. It seems that Symbian support and updates won’t be for the long haul.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop presented this slide at Nokia’s Capital Markets Day.

It clearly shows that in the long run, Nokia Windows Phone would eventually replace Symbian handsets. It makes sense for the company really. Symbian is their “burning platform” and the only reason they will keep on developing it in the immediate future is because they can’t capture the mid-range market with Windows Phone 7. WP7 handsets have a strict hardware requirement and that doesn’t come cheap. Eventually though, as technology gets better and materials get cheaper, we’ll see WP7 mid-range phones out in the market and this will force Nokia to let Symbian die a slow death.

I wonder how this announcement will affect future sales of Nokia phones especially the fairly new Nokia E7. We can’t blame Nokia for this move. There was a good reason that Motorola and Sony Ericsson ditched Symbian in favor of Android.

Related posts:

1. Nokia updates Symbian OS on N8, C7 and C6-01
2. Nokia to buy Symbian, goes Open Source
3. Nokia goes with Windows Phone as smartphone OS of choice
4. A glimpse of the Nokia N8 at the Nokia Connections 2010
5. Nokia C7: First Impressions