Why Nokia's Symbian OS sucks

Nokia's Symbian is the world's most popular mobile operating system according to the latest Gartner research. Despite the rise of the iPhone and Android platforms, Symbian still accounts for almost 47 per cent of smartphone sales in the world.

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While Symbian is a clear market leader, the new kids on the block are slowly eating away at the platform's market share. Apple's iPhone platform is continuing to make strides, while Google's Android platform has gone from 1.8 per cent market share in the second quarter of 2009, to a whopping 17.2 per cent market share a year later. In the same time, Symbian dropped from 51 per cent to 41.2 per cent.

One of the key reasons for the rise of competing platforms is new premium handsets like Apple's iPhone 4 and the Android-powered HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy S. The once mighty Nokia has struggled to produce a device capable of challenging these types of high-end smartphones. The Finnish giant is hoping its new flagship N8 smartphone will help it fight back, but we remain unconvinced. So why does Symbian suck compared to the new kids on the block?

It looks ugly

Although looks are usually a matter of personal preference, we believe that both Apple and Android smartphones have far better looking and more modern interfaces. In our opinion, the Symbian interface looks and feels outdated. Of course, this is a UI and not an OS, but put an iPhone, an Android handset and a Nokia N97 mini together and judge for yourself — the N97 mini looks decidedly second rate. Of course, fanboys will point to the fact that the N97 mini is no longer Nokia's flagship handset — this honour will soon be bestowed upon the Nokia's N8, which will hit the shelves on 1 November. The Nokia N8 is the first smartphone to run Symbian^3, which delivers a facelift to the operating system. Symbian^3 does improve on many aspects of its predecessor and it is smoother, faster and easier to use. But it still looks inferior to most of its competition.

Nokia's upcoming N8 is the first smartphone to run Symbian^3.

Third-party apps

A usable app marketplace has become a critical feature for any smartphone operating system. Apple has its App Store, Google the Android Market, and RIM has BlackBerry App World. Symbian has Nokia's Ovi Store. Though the Ovi Store has steadily improved since its release, it has far less apps than its competitors. Some may point to the fact that it is not about the quantity of apps rather than the quantity, but at the time of writing there is still no official Symbian app for Twitter, eBay, PayPal or Dropbox (just to name a few). There is also a distinct lack of apps that have a 'wow' factor, such as 3D games, and the store itself isn't as easy to use as its competitors.

Of course, Symbian has long benefited from widespread developer support, and there is a wealth of applications available away from the Ovi Store — the problem is, not every smartphone user is tech savvy enough to install them. Most want to tap the screen a few times and quickly download an app; it is clearly a more streamlined and less frustrating process to use competing app stores.

Minimal manufacturer support

As the owner of Symbian, Nokia is the number one device manufacturer for the platform. In recent times, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have released smartphones running the Symbian platform, but both are now focussing on the Android OS. The fact is, if you want a high-end Symbian smartphone your only real choice is Nokia. If you want a high-end Android smartphone you can take your pick: HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, Motorola, Garmin-Asus, and Acer currently sell Android-powered smartphones in Australia. With more manufacturer support comes user interface customisations — a great example is HTC's Sense UI, seen not only on its flagship Desire handset, but also on the entry-level Wildfire smartphone.

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Text entry

Nokia was slow to the touchscreen party and this is evident even in its latest high-end smartphones. The N8 has no on-screen QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode; instead you get a numeric keypad with T9 predictive text input, making it look and feel truly outdated. Of course, you do get a full QWERTY keyboard when you rotate the phone to landscape mode, but almost all of Nokia's competitors offer a basic QWERTY keyboard when the phone is held in portrait mode — there is no reason why Nokia shouldn't also include this functionality.

People may point to the fact that all on-screen keyboards have their downsides. However, the iPhone's keyboard is renowned for its great text correction and the Android keyboard is steadily improving. The on-screen keyboard on Windows Phone 7 devices is simply excellent for a debut offering. Symbian is again clearly lagging behind the competition when it comes to text entry.

It is a pain in the proverbial to update

Like other software, most operating systems are improved over time come in the form of updates. Apple added the much requested copy-and-paste feature in an iOS update, while the latest version of Android 2.2 (Froyo) adds improved speed, native Internet tethering, full Adobe Flash support and an improved mobile Web browser. Symbian also gets updates, but unlike Apple (which uses iTunes) and Android (which is often updated over-the-air) the delivery of these updates is a complete mess. Just as an example, if you own a Nokia phone try to update your software here. Feel free to let us know about your experience — we are willing to bet it won't be a positive one.

Sure, both iPhone and Android updates are far from perfect — there are reports of the latest iOS updates crippling older iPhone 3G handsets (not to mention the fact that iTunes leaves a sour taste in the mouth for many people, especially those with PCs). Android updates can take way too long thanks to a sea of red tape involving manufacturers' "UI skins" (such as HTC's Sense UI) and carriers taking their own sweet time to push updates out to handsets. But both of these update methods are far easier than Symbian's.

Nokia's N97 smartphone delivered a wealth of features, but fell behind the competition when it came to usability.

Web browsing

Have you ever used the Web browser on Nokia's N97 mini? Browse through a few sites, and then do the same on an iPhone 4, an HTC Desire or a Samsung Galaxy S. Spot any differences? Not only are Nokia's competitors faster, but they render pages better, scrolling feels natural and effortless, it is easy to tap on Web links, and tabbed browsing is generally painless. Sure, they aren't perfect — the iPhone's lack of Flash support is well documented, and the Android browser hasn't always been snappy (the 2.2 Froyo update promises a much faster browsing experience). Regardless, both are streets ahead of Symbian.

To be fair, Symbian^3 on the Nokia N8 does remedy some of these issues and offers a much better browsing experience. Multitouch is present and pinching to zoom is fairly smooth, while pages are rendered better than with previous versions of the platform. But page loading times are noticeably slower than the competition. Based on what we've seen thus far, Symbian^3 merely plays catch up rather than streaking ahead of the competition.

Symbian will continue to hold a large market share in the years to come, but mainly due to Nokia's mid-range feature phones, rather than flagship models like the N-Series handsets. Nokia has even admitted that the N8 will be the last N-Series smartphone to run Symbian — future N-Series devices will be powered by MeeGo, a platform that merges Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo OS. What does it say when Nokia is ditching Symbian on its flagship smartphones?

Do you think Symbian sucks? Let us know in the comments below!