Comparing market share of Symbian devices to iPhone or Android is like comparing market share of bicycles to market share of cars.
Symbian OS has several version. The version that ships in volume powers devices like Nokia C1-01 http://store.nokia.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdeta... or worse. It's not the same product as iPhone or Android or even the old Palm OS shipped on Treo.
The share of Symbian OS devices shipping a version comparable to iPhone or Android is a blip on the radar. A drop in the ocean. And a peasant among Kings.
No, that's a misunderstanding. The C1 and its ilk are not Symbian devices.
Most of Nokia's cheap phones are on the Series 40 platform, which is a closed "non-smart" OS (that has nevertheless grown some fairly smart features recently, like QWERTY keyboards and a HTML browser).
I think integrating would be better, because it seems wrong to judge a products "success" only at some specific instant of time, rather than judging it over a full period of time.
The sign of the first derivative only gives you the present rate of adoption/abandonment of the platform, while integrating gives you a measure of success over the platform's entire existence.
I was just answering his question. Thank you for defining the opposing view quantitatively. I have never used a nokia phone, but certainly I would count myself a success if I had area under the curve like that.
how about global market share?
2008: 52.4% of smartphones (RIM 17%, Apple 10%) [1]
2009: 47.2% of smartphones (RIM 21%, Apple 15%) [1]
Android came in at 0.5% and 5% for those two years.
Gartner forecasts that Symbian will remain in the number one smartphone OS position until 2014 when it is contested by Android [2]
Sure, it's in decline now, but it's been a phenomenal success.
[1] http://www.canalys.com/pr/2010/r2010021.html
[2] http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1434613