My last two phones before the iPhone were symbians and there was no independent software for either. My phone supplier (Orange) provided a few authorized buggy overpriced games but that was it.
Really? Had Orange removed the ability to install native Symbian (.sis) apps and Mobile Java (.jar) apps?
Because if you would have a normal Symbian devices, there would be plenty of free software available. Not as easily as through AppStore (almost with the Ovi) but the platform is much more open than iPhone in that it allows installation of software from any source.
How would I have got it on there? I'm a technical guy but I never worked any of that out. I managed to get images off via bluetooth but never managed to get anything onto it. My second 3G phone a Sony-Ericsson was slightly more successful (I managed to stick some MP3s on it). But that was it.
Despite supposedly having email, video calling and internet both phones failed to do any of the three despite numerous attempts. I could get WAP but that was it (and typing a full url with the numeric keypad was a nightmare - it took about as long as the page took to render i.e. forever).
I and a friend got Nokia 3G phones at the same time sat down to make our first video call - a momentous moment. Total failure. Not even a pretense at a picture.
The Ericsson was a terrible MP3 player too. Really tricky to use. However it was a fantastic camera.
I stand by my assertion that Apple changed phones forever when it introduced the iPhone. Everything worked and was usable. Then, when they introduced the App store this was the first time I was able to use a phone with 3rd party software despite numerous attempts.
Ah OK, so your point in the original message is that you could not get independent software into your phone.
Because there sure was PLENTY of independent software for Symbian, and the system does very little to restrict what these apps can do.
Off the top of my head, a few simple ways to install apps in these devices that are independent of the operator and theis offerings:
1. Website that allows you to enter your phonenumber, and sends an installation URL via SMS. Just a few clicks on the phone side, very simple. For example Google uses this. <http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/>;
2. Enter the short mobile optimized URL in the phone. How hard exactly is it to enter something like "m.google.com/maps" to the browser of your phone?
3. Send SIS/JAR file over Bluetooth to the device -- quite a few of my "non-techie" friends have managed to do this.
I fully agree that Apple has made game changing improvements to mobile applications, especially on the user experience side. But to say that there is no independent software for Symbian is plain wrong.
I believe I said was not is. I gave up on Symbian in 2007. I'd also like to pint out that in 2006 I was working with ex-Symbian employees and they seemed equally clueless about how you would go about installing software onto my device. The answer they gave involved a Java compiler and programming environment.
I don't think we disagreed on the tense: My point is that there was indeed plenty of apps for Symbian.
I find it extremely odd that someone working with Symbian wouldn't know HOW to install apps in the phone. Or maybe they were not tech people?
I had to check some dates:
We released "Pro Session Golf" first as part of the N93 Golf Edition package in 2006[1], and later in 2007[2] as a downloadable standalone. And it definitely wasn't the only Symbian app around at the time!
Where are you based? I am from Finland, I guess Symbian
products and especially app culture varied a lot between countries.
BTW, about ways to install apps to Symbian devices, I forgot the popular and simple way that I personally hated: Nokia PC Suite and USB or Bluetooth -connection.
I gave up on Symbian long before 2007 and I had plenty of 3rd party apps (and developed a few myself). If you took an iPhone, put a capacitive touch screen on it, and made it fat ugly and slow then you'd have the phone I had 10 years ago.
If your only experience was Symbian and Nokia then I can see why you feel that way. There's a reason that even 10 years of development after you had your phone, Nokia has decided to dump Symbian. Terrible platform.
