While Symbian’s condition isn’t pretty, it’s not all doom and gloom for the world’s largest smartphone OS. Symbian still has a lot going for it, and if Nokia can get all their ducks in a row they have the potential to make themselves a formidable rival against Android and iOS
Quality Control – The main problem with Symbian S60v5 was the overall usability and stability. They simply didn’t do enough testing and research to figure out the best way to implement the UI. The OS has a very thrown-together feel to it. In addition, there were just too many bugs in initial releases. My N97 was practically unusable until firmware version v11 and the 5530 XpressMusic had kinetic scrolling enabled only in a few areas(the main menu was not one of them) which added to confusion as to when one could use it and when one couldn’t. Releasing phones with beta-like builds of the OS is not going to make Symbian look good in anyone’s eyes. Not to mention that not all consumers understand how to update their phones. They expect the out of box experience to work, as they should.
