The Symbian operating system used to rule the world of mobile phones, mainly thanks to Nokia. Symbian which was born by the Symbian Foundation is not an exclusive creation of Nokia. but Nokia made it famous.
At its peak in 2006, Symbian controlled the operating system market share to 73%. But then, Symbian arrived formidable rivals, namely iOS in 2007 and especially Android.
The Android operating system first greeted the world in 2008 and slowly but surely penetrated the market, Nokia, which was the king of the world's mobile phones at that time, never seemed interested in adopting Android. They believe Symbian is still a consumer favorite.
"Symbian is the best platform," said Kenny Mathers, Head of Developer Relations & Marketing Forum Nokia, APAC, at the time.
Kenny said that his party respects what Android has done. Even so, it's only limited to that, not to participate in using Android services on the smartphone it makes.
According to Kenny, Nokia has a number of missions when it comes to creating a handset. The first is to want to make a sophisticated gadget. Then the services offered can be integrated with other Nokia services. Third, of course affordable by users.
"And we've got all that on Symbian. So our position on Android seems clear (close the door tightly)," he concluded.
Symbian Falls
History records, Symbian finally unable to withstand the onslaught of Android. In the fourth quarter of 2010, the invasion of Android phones succeeded in defeating the supply of Symbian phones, making the Green Robot OS the most popular in the world.
Based on Canalys data, shipments of Android phones in the fourth quarter of 2010 reached 32.9 million units. Meanwhile, Symbian handsets only reached 31 million units.
Other data belonging to Computer Weekly said that Google's OS market share continued to increase from 8.7% in 2009 to 33% in 2010. A fairly rapid increase. Meanwhile, in 2012, Symbian's market share was only 4.4% or the lowest of all time.
Even though the Symbian they rely on has been bent by Android, Nokia is still adamant that it will not use it. In 2011, the leadership of CEO Stephen Elop chose Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.
Elop seems sure, Nokia's big name will make Windows Phone giant. But unfortunately the reality later said otherwise, Nokia was sinking even more, and eventually sold it cheaply to Microsoft.
The downturn of Symbian made the Symbian Foundation disband in 2010 and Nokia took over its development. But just a year later, Symbian was transferred to Accenture. Practically since then, there have been many more phones that use Symbian until they are completely gone.