What happens with Nokia if Symbian dies…..?
Some thoughts about the phone OS landscape
…Oliver Lauer from Mobinauten.de asked this question in a blog entry (which you find here in german http://www.mobinauten.de/blog/2009/01/05/was-passiert-mit-nokia-wenn-symbian-stirbt/ ). He notes that Symbian is already dying and asked the question what Nokia will do in the future, integrate Android OS? He closed with the statement that he will concentrate on developing for the iPhone and for Android phones.
Apart from the fact that it is much harder to develop for Symbian compared to developing for Android or the iPhone, the biggest problem I see for Nokia and other manufacturers and network operators, that there is no distribution channel for Java or Symbian applications that really works, or at least none a small developer can afford or has the time to wait for.
As a small developer for mobile applications - Orbster is a developer for GPS games with 7 FTE - you have to remain focused.
If it would be sufficient to develop for one or at most for two operating systems to let a business grow, not only Orbster would happily drop the other platforms, many others would as well.
Fishlabs, one of the most accepted developers internationally, will not develop any new Java mobile games for distribution via mobile network operators and Internet portals. You can read the reasons here http://blog.fishlabs.net/en/2009/01/05/the-best-mobile-games-do-not-make-a-profit/ .
Although it seems that there are still some developers who live quite well with the current situation like handygames http://www.pocketgamer.biz/news.asp?c=0439062001&pk=14715212 if you follow the discussions in the mobile developer scene you have to conclude that there is a major paradigm shift going on right now in mobile application development and distribution, away from manufacturers and operators to the iPhone and maybe Android and to the corresponding new distribution channels.
If manufacturers and mobile operators won’t offer much better access to their millions of customers, they will lose a large part of the developer community and with it a lot of money via application sales.