Why is Symbian unheard of in the USA?

[fraydog]

So AT&T:
Nokia N75, N76, N95b, 6682, E71x

T-Mobile:
N-Gage, N-Gage QD, 6682, N-90, N-92(2nd major camera phone along with a video contest submitted to Spike Lee).

That was what I was stating before to refute that US providers would not touch it. Try reading what i posted before stating it was rambling. Too many ppl skim for facts and get things out of context.

CDMA.... *crickets*

Shame, because Nokia could have filled the same role as Motorola did with Verizon.

[4mula1]

Don't forget the 3650! T-Mobile was offering it when I first signed up but I didn't get one. Other Symbian phones that I can remember being offered was the 6600 (T-Mo) and the 7610 (ATTWS).

[kingstu]

Symbian is unheard of the same reason that Series 40, Series 30 and other mobile phone operating systems are unheard of...because it came into existence BEFORE the iPhone. Not many people cared about the operating system before the App Stores because phones were sold by device manufacturer and not Operating System. People looked at the features of a device more and Android's push brought the OS to the fore, instead of the device manufacturer, so they could all share a common App Store.

Symbian phones, with all their complexity early on, could do things that made them attractive to the tech nerd and would cut into the profit margin of the carrier. WIFI in a phone? That means that you don't need a data plan? Full offline maps? That means you don't need the carrier's subscription GPS service. Tethering by USB, Bluetooth and WIFI? That means you don't have to pay extra for a using the data you already pay for anyway you want. Pentaband 3G? That means you don't have to buy a new phone if you switch carriers. Sideloading apps? That means that even if we restrict what you can buy in our APP store you can still circumvent that and buy elsewhere. NFC? That means the carrier might lose out on mobile payments so they don't like that either. Skype and VOIP baked in? That means the carriers lose out on voice minutes. FM Radio? That means you won't use internet radio and the data consumption that goes with it.

Symbian did a lot and still does a lot. It's UI wasn't consumer friendly but it's features were and still are.

[drunkdrunk]

Android rules ..hehehe

[wlo8]

I had never heard of Symbian until I was looking into the E71 smartphone for Straight Talk. I never imagined that a Smartphone on Straight Talk would be so fully featured and great. Then when I did research, I found out that Symbian was for a while the most popular smartphone OS in the world! I was shocked!!

So, how come I never heard of it, living in New York State? Why didn't Symbian ever catch on in the United States?

Well, Cingular and AT&T Mobility actually carried 6682, E62, N75, 6650, 6790 Surge, E71x, Sony Erisccon Vivaz. Cingular even had the S80 9300b.

I think E62, N75, and 6790 Surge were actually initially "made" for AT&T

There is actually a link still about Symbian phones: http://www.wireless.att.com/business...martphones.jsp

AT&T was even going to carry the X7 in 2011, the rumor was Nokia killed it: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...659541434.html

I would not say Symbian was not totally unsupported in the US, just not the way they had the success in the Europe.

The N75 was definitely a hit here on HoFo, look at the following threads:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...ROVED)(achived)

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...N75-(APPROVED)

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...N75-(APPROVED)

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...-Now-Available