Nokia customers have been surveyed by the company as to what appealed to them about its recent partnership with Microsoft for Windows Phone 7 (WP7). One highly topical option, regarding which OS they preferred, leaned heavily towards keeping Symbian and MeeGo, with little support for WP7.
The aim of the research, conducted on Nokia's blog, Nokia Conversaions, was to better understand what features users most want on a Nokia WP7 handset. The suggested options ranged from supporting Xbox games, Windows desktop integration, a higher resolution screen to support for IE9 or Unique UI.
The most popular feature was the Unique UI with 22.12 per cent, while the "other" option outscored this with 22.6 per cent.
Of this 22.6 per cent that selected the "other" option, a third said that a Windows Phone handset was not what they wanted. Meanwhile, MeeGo was sought after by" a little over 8 per cent and Symbian by just under 8 per cent. Nokia's development platform, Qt, received 4.8 per cent within this "other" option.
Nokia's response to this was that nine out of 10 current Windows Phone users would recommend the operating system, according to data supplied by Microsoft. A Nokia manager has also given an indication that Symbian will not be discontinued, claiming that the company still had obligations to its users, developers, business partners and customers.
As reported by CNet, at the launch of the E7 smartphone in Singapore, Vlasta Berka, general manager for Nokia Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, said: "Just because we are changing our direction in terms of a smartphone platform, it doesn't mean that the existing platform is completely broken. We still have obligations to our users, developers, business partners, and customers."
Nokia has said there are currently 200 million Symbian users worldwide and that it plans to sell 150 million more Symbian devices in the years ahead.
"Symbian is here to stay," Berka said. "Symbian will still be around, but it's just going to go somewhere around the corner."
For more:
- see this Nokia Conversations article
- see this The Inquirer article
- see this CNet article
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