Nokia is dying

Nokia’s Q2 2010 earnings, as reported this month, have taken a sharp fall (40% less than Q2 2009), and it may be because people aren’t buying Nokia products anymore. Well, that’s actually exactly why they’re not making as much money as they used to. Don’t get me wrong. The majority of the world still uses Nokia handsets right now, but most of the world will also be switching pretty soon if Nokia doesn’t get with the program. While Symbian has remained the world leader in operating systems for several years, it has not led the world in innovation, despite its open-source operation. So why is it that, when Symbian users have the freedom to shape the operating system and create exactly what they want, consumers are choosing other smartphones?

Maybe it’s because Nokia hasn’t exactly stuck with the mainstream when it comes to user interfaces. Looking at the rising stars of the OS world, application and homescreen layout has evolved into a pretty standard grid layout of icons. Busy people don’t want to have to read names of applications and navigate through menus. They want to look at a picture, touch it and get work done. It’s sort of similar to the ongoing battle between Mac loyalists and PC users. The difference in look and layout between operating systems with the same basic capabilities has created a technology war for the ages, and it doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon.

With that in mind, it will be interesting to watch how Symbian grows with new images of Symbian^3 and ^4 starting to pop up as well as MeeGo, Nokia’s newest operating system formed in a joint venture with Intel’s Moblin.