Nokia to phase out Symbian platform by 2016

The Meego platform would be confined to Nokia N9. In a press conference in February 2011, the Finnish phone-maker had hinted at phasing out Symbian.

Viral Oza, Director Marketing, Nokia India Pvt Ltd, during the launch of Nokia's E6 and X7 in New Delhi. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

Leading cellphone maker Nokia today said it will stop using its mobile operating system Symbian by 2016 and recently showcased Nokia N9 will be the first and last handset in its portfolio on Meego platform.

Nokia and leading chipmaker Intel have jointly developed the Meego platform.

“We will have work on Symbian till 2016,” Nokia India Director (Marketing) Viral Oza said at an event here.

Mr. Oza also mentioned that Nokia N9 smartphone will be the first and last phone to have Meego platform.

Meego was seen as Intel’s strategy to enter into mobile handset business.

Mr. Oza added that Nokia will continue to provide full support to Nokia N9 users throughout the product lifecycle.

“We will launch N9 on Meego platform and take the learnings from there,” Mr. Oza said.

While N9 has earned accolades from mobile phone analysts, they feel Nokia will need to deliver more to match the available apps in high-end smartphones.

Mobile phone analyst Clinton Jeff of The ZOMG network said developers may show less inclination to devote their resources for a mobile phone platform like Meego, whose death had been announced by the company.

Nokia on Wednesday launched two new smartphones - E6 and X7 - built on new version of Symbian, Symbian Anna.

Nokia said E6 has a battery that can support two months stand-by time and 14 hours of talk time. It has a touch display and qwerty keypad.

Positioned as a business phone, Nokia E6 can configure up to 10 e-mail ids and supports access to intranet for internal communication in an organisation.

Nokia has incorporated Microsoft’s messaging applications in the E6, which including access to Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Communicator Mobile and Microsoft SharePoint. This phone is priced at Rs. 18,679.

Nokia X7 has been pitched as an entertainment phone; it comes with high definition games.

To promote Nokia X7, the company also announced a gaming tournament, Full Throttle to be held between July 7 to August 7 at Nokia’s retail outlets Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Chandigarh.