Nokia ends Symbian era

Nokia confirms return to profitability as it also kills of its Symbian smartphone operating system.

In its earnings announcement, Nokia confirmed that the 808 PureView was the last new device.
“During our transition to Windows Phone through 2012, we continued to ship devices based on Symbian,” the company said. “The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia.”
The manufacturer had previously noted that Q4 2012 was the “last meaningful quarter for Symbian”, and today’s confirmation was not a surprise to industry observers. Nokia's results confirmed numbers it released earlier this month while also adding that the firm is now back in profit.
The $585million profit was boosted by a decision to sell of its headquarters; the company now has £4billion in cash.
The 41-megapixel PureView used technology that is now starting to appear appear in Nokia’s Windows Phone-based Lumia handsets.

Nokia’s earnings release revealed that it sold 2.2 million Symbian units in Q4 2012, half as many as the Lumia range at 4.4 million. Symbian was less than 14 per cent of the overall 15.9million smartphones.
Symbian was the biggest operating system in the world until it was overtaken by Apple, and was used from 1998 when it was a multi-brand proposition from Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Psion. Nokia took complete control of it in 2008.