Nokia Culls Symbian, Gently

Every big player threw their towel in behind one of the operating systems being developed for handheld devices. It just hasn't been until now that the big guys have really gone down for the count, or has he? Nokia confirms that their smartphone OS, Symbian, will be going the way of OS/2 Warp, BeOs and Meego. But never fear, they are legally obligated to provide support for at least the next couple of years, which means by the time anyone notices, you'll already have a new Windows Phone in your hands.

Though Symbian's run on the US market was less than successful, Nokia is planning on taking the graceful way out. They don't have much of a choice as they have the OS version of child support to pay out. They write in their letter, "As a very minimum, we have a legal obligation, varying in length between countries, to support users for a period of time after the last product has been sold." So if you're reading this clutching your Symbian device in rage, don't worry. They have to help you out while you have your phone. But if you're a company that spent a significant amount of money training your software engineers to design for Symbian, pivot and start releasing a lot of apps targeted for China, India, Russia and Turkey, where Symbian is still king of the market.

But, this round of devices is the last that will be using Nokia's Symbian. Their partnership with Microsoft upset Intel's apple cart, turning MeeGo into naught but an ill-fated linux distro with a really weird GUI. Nokia will be slowly migrating over to the Windows Phone. I just hope it doesn't have a start menu.

[via i-programmer]