With Symbian taking a right royal bashing in the tech industry gossip columns in recent months, I was determined to get Symbian's side of the story. Heading to their HQ in London, I collared Executive Director Lee Williams for a 20 minute interview, putting over my (and your questions). Here's the interview, transcribed in full (grab a coffee first). And, if you prefer, embedded below is a condensed 9 minute video version, forming the lion's share of my Phones Show programme 97.
Read on in the full article.
I would suggest you add your alarm comment to ideas.symbian.org - that's exactly the sort of thing the site is for.
So he wouldn't even concede a single point of the criticism against Symbian and its devices (even regarding the UI, which seems to be a big concern for Nokia). Is that because ALL of the criticism is unfair, or is he burying his head in the sand?
I'm also disappointed about my Smart-Phone , as it doesn't ride like my colleague's SMART .....
😊 Regards jApi NL
Ignorance bordering on arrogance. This does not bode well for Symbian.
Good luck to you, you will need it... lots of it.
I think the naysayers in the comments are misunderstanding where Lee Williams is coming from. Clearly the Symbian Foundation DO think there are UI improvements to be made, and therefore a currently lacking UI, because of recent announcements about Symbian 3^ and 4^ performance and feature focus, UI stuff seems to be their priority at the moment. If anything I hope they don't overprioritise it.
What Lee is saying is that for the UI paradigm current Symbian devices use, it's really pretty good, and it is. The iPhone and Android have a different UI paradigm and that is something that Symbian are clearly in the process of addressing. But iPhone/Android UIs are not what all phones should be like, and not what all consumers want. Or arguably even most, thinking of the whole planet. Many people on the planet do not want or care about a snazzy, totally flexible, moveable UI. They just want a simple click-scroll-click type interface with solid buttons. Most people also want a device that is physically robust, and reliable for making calls and texts. Especially in the developing world which is where most of the growth is in the phone market for the forseeable future. iPhone and Android's strong points are not these core features of robustness and reliability - they are weak, but pretty. Nokia/Symbian is solid and reliable. And soon it will be pretty too.
As a mobile software developer I have carefully assessed iPhone, Android, and Symbian and am comfortable in rejecting the first two as platforms worthy of my time, effort and money. Those who need luck will be those betting the farm on non-Symbian phones, because I certainly wouldn't.
Unregistered wrote: iPhone and Android's strong points are not these core features of robustness and reliability - they are weak, but pretty. Nokia/Symbian is solid and reliable.
I can't believe it! I cannot possibly believe that, on the heels of the N97's lens cover and GPS fiasco, somebody would have the chutzpah to write something like this. Didn't have the courage to sign your post though, did you?
rvirga wrote:I can't believe it! I cannot possibly believe that, on the heels of the N97's lens cover and GPS fiasco, somebody would have the chutzpah to write something like this. Didn't have the courage to sign your post though, did you?
Signing a post does not take courage. Nor does being sanctimonious about it. It possibly does require a small amount of effort - as would thinking before you post.
Which brings me nicely to the question:
Now we've got that out of the way, what has a poor GPS antenna and and a badly designed lens cover have to do with the core of Symbian OS software?
Arthur wrote:Ignorance bordering on arrogance. This does not bode well for Symbian.Good luck to you, you will need it... lots of it.
Luck doesn't come into it.
Do you honestly believe that a man in his position could say anything else? I seriously can't believe the simplistic way some people think.
rvirga wrote:I can't believe it! I cannot possibly believe that, on the heels of the N97's lens cover and GPS fiasco, somebody would have the chutzpah to write something like this. Didn't have the courage to sign your post though, did you?
Those are both Nokia's hardware design failures and have absolutely nothing to with the Symbian operating system or Symbian Foundation (which is what the interview is about).
You know, there was a lot of discussion about this following issue in the Nokia forums but nobody at Symbian or Nokia seems to have paid any real attention. Certainly I never saw any responses. The issue is this: when I go overseas, and allow my phone to update its system clock using the local telco provider's time, all appointments are moved backwards or forwards by the number of hours' difference in the timezones between my previous location and the current location. Why can't the phone change the system time without moving appointment times? Why isn't there at least an option to keep appointment times as they are, and who on earth would find this a usable, friendly, logical, practical thing for his phone to do? For more you can surf to the Nokia forums. I'm hoping someone reading this thread can offer a sensible response.
I'm guessing you are setting appointments in advance and using local time in your destination? Then it would be annoying to see that times have changed in calendar. I have recurring appointments for meetings that always take place at the same time. I find it logical and practical that the phone adjusts the times for me when I am abroad.
But I see your point, there should be an option to allow automatic time update without changing appointment times.
The calendar always runs in UTC and when you enter an appointment, it's entered in the time zone you are using at the time. When you change time zone, that's just a display thing and the time of the entry doesn't change - just the time it will be displayed with.
The only thing missing IMHO is that you can't select a time zone to enter an appointment with, but that would be a lot of UI clutter for little gain.
LOL Symbian execs live in Dreamland. Better start to prepare the vaseline, boys, it will be painful.
Let's look on the bright side. After the undisputed steaming pile of crap that is Symbian 5th edition they can do no worse, can they?
Unregistered wrote:Let's look on the bright side. After the undisputed steaming pile of crap that is Symbian 5th edition they can do no worse, can they?
I'm off to paint a wall so I can watch it dry.
It will be more interesting than more of your postings.
Unregistered wrote:Let's look on the bright side. After the undisputed steaming pile of crap that is Symbian 5th edition they can do no worse, can they?
Undisputed? Hardly. While there are clearly some issues with 5th Edition, it is certainly not a "pile of crap", and will no doubt improve. And you are basing your opinion on what exactly...?