Nokia
have outlined their plans and targets for 2010 to investors earlier today, with
the Symbian operating system confirmed to feature heavily in it.
Speaking
at their annual Capital Markets Day, the CEO of Nokia, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo
pledged that the Finnish manufacturer will remain competitive with improvements
to the user experience, and an aim to "take the Symbian user interface to
a new level."
"As an operating system, Symbian has reach and flexibility like no other
platform, and we have measures in place to push smartphones down to new price
points globally, while growing margins."
With
Android bringing a high end experience to the masses at present in handsets
like the T-Mobile Pulse and HTC Tattoo, Nokia sees the necessity in turning
Symbian into a strong alternative to Google's open-source platform.
Moving
forward, Nokia's handset plans also include two major product milestones; one
in the first half of 2010 and another by year's end, as well as 'significantly
increasing the proportion of touch and QWERTY devices in [our] smartphone
portfolio.'
Samsung
has been doing wonderful business in both of these markets in 2009, and with
Nokia's touch phone range still relatively meagre to the Korean manufacturer's
onslaught and BlackBerry making serious inroads to the consumer sector, the
next year should see an attempt to redress the balance.
Nokia's
new Maemo operating system will also make a more formal appearance, with their
first "Maemo 6-powered mobile computer, with an iconic user
experience" set to arrive in the second half of 2010.
Software
improvements are also on the cards, providing developers with more tools to
make applications the Ovi Store, as well as focus on attending to the
ever-important emerging market with dedicated products and services.
With
forecasts of 10% growth across the industry, Nokia are confident of maintaining
their market share through 2010. Fighting off competition on two fronts by both
playing to their strengths of mid-range devices with a revitalised Symbian
whilst courting the high-end with a focussed Maemo 6 assault could see them
through a tumultuous transitory period.
2009
was a rough year for Nokia, really
rough. With profits
falling 90% in the first quarter and over 4,000 layoffs in a restructuring
process, it looks like they are rolling into 2010 much leaner, meaner and ready
to react to changes in the mobile market.
And
if that rumoured 12 megapixel Nokia N87 doing the rounds is the real thing...they're ready.
Whilst
it’s easy to wax lyrical about capacitive touch screens and twelve
megapixel lenses today, time was once that this technology was uncommon
in homes -- let alone the pockets -- of most people a mere ten years ago.
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