Nokia has manufactured and shipped the very last series of smartphones running its Symbian smartphone platform, reports the Financial Times.
Nokia has been transitioning away from Symbian since 2011 in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. The company has not introduced any new Symbian-based models in some time, and the devices that recently shipped are expected to be sold before the end of summer, marking the end for Nokia’s once-vaunted smartphone platform. “It took 22 months to get a Symbian phone out of the door,” explained Nokia to FT. “With Windows Phone, it is less than a year. We spend less time having to tinker with deep-lying code and more time on crafting elements of the experience that make a big difference, such as around photography, maps, music and apps in general.”
Nokia is now the world’s leading supplier of Windows Phone devices, owning approximately 80% of the Windows Phone market. It’s overall share of the smartphone market, however, trails market leaders Samsung, Apple, and others.