Originally Posted by ScottC
My problem with the Symbian marketshare stats is that the vast majority of the users of an S60 phone don't use it, or purchase it as a smartphone. It just happens to be the OS of the cute phone they buy. When someone shops for a Palm smartphone or WM smartphone they specifically pick a device that they will use as a smartphone, not just a cute music/camera device.
Are you backing this with data? I dont see it. People do use those things - that is what supports the wide and deep range of freeware and 3rd party commercial software available on the Symbian platform.
WM has a very small market share because their devices are complicated and difficult to use and difficult to maintian - thus forcing them into a small box where a subset of users live. There are not many people who are willing to go track down WakeZenPhone so that their phone can actually do as simple a thing as reliably wake them up in the morning.
Symbian7s ability to put a smartphone in the hands of a variety of people is quite an achivement. The person who starts off just wanting to have a nice camera next wants to play music, then maybe a video - and next thing you know they want city streetmaps then even GPS. I've seen this happen with my wife who is as far from a techie as could be. But it all starts by putting a reliable and stable smartphone in their hand, not the tempramental devices that HTC produces which sound like you are talking through a tin can.
So I'd give Symbian credit - that is what will take smartphones the rest of the way, not dragging a windows style interface to a mobile context where it is patently out of place.