Nokia’s Symbian-based communicators managed to gain an almost cult-like following right from their release - the cultists probably felt about the 9210 like Apple freaks feel about the iPhone. Right along that came Series 80(EPOC without touchscreen)…and Nokia pushed out model after model, making good money with each. The world was beautiful - until the 7650 was released.
The 7650 was the first candybar phone that was truly programmable(it is in the Austrian technical museum - photo coming soon)…and ran another operating system - Series 60. The 7650 caught on like wildfire(finally a phone where good games could be made for) - and the rest is more-less history. In fact, Nokia has even managed to convince licensees to purchase a licence for the OS from a competitor in the device segment - Palm had to split up for that.
While S60 thrived, Series 80 remained a more-less isolated operating system that lived in Nokia’s Communicator series. Some applications were available, but Series 60 has had far more. When the E61 came along, S60 application developers showed that they can adapt their apps to horizontal screens…so why keep Series 80 alive?
Palm recently was in a similar situation, and chose to can an already-finished, shipment-ready product(the Foleo) in order to keep their platforms “clean”. Developers hate having to rewrite code - and having two platforms with just marginal differences is a sure-fire way to annoy developers. Palm and Nokia both took a long time to figure this out, but finally came to the same conclusion: having two platforms is bad for developers.
Thus, Nokia did the only right thing - kick Series 80. Developers who currently own Series 80 apps have a bit of rewriting ahead of them - but as a benefit, they can now target a much bigger market segment. S60 developers, on the other hand, now have the choice of adapting their apps for “widescreen boxen” to leverage E90 sales.
Of course, existing Series 80 users and developers have troubles ahead of them in the near future, with beta software and other immaturity signs - but IMHO, everyone will benefit in the end. Consumers can pick choose from a bigger portfolio of applications; developers have less work to do; Nokia needs to support but one platform. Everybody benefits - it IMHO was the best choice!
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Three things need to remark.
1. Afaik, 7650 was not the first S60. I have a 3650 - http://nds2.photos.nokia.com/EUROPE_NOKIA_COM_3/r2/press/photo/phones/jpeg/3650_lores_01.jpg - an it’s older than 7650. Also, 3650/3660 has limited memory, some larger apps does not run on it. I think the first really succesfull S60 phone was the 6600.
2. Don’t forget Series90, the story is similar to Foleo: the 7110 - http://the.taoofmac.com/media/Nokia/7710/Image1.jpg - was released, then suddenly discontinued. It was a touch-screen one, google it. No other S90 devices released. It is a strong nominee for “Shortest Lifetime Platform” competition.
3. Unfortunatelly, there are incompatibility issues between old S80 devices (9210/i/9290) and new ones (9300/9500). I have 9210i and I just can’t install newer stuff, they are only for 9300/9500.
Hi ern0,
thank you very much for your insightful comment - sorry that the spam filter had a munch at it because of the URL’s!
Anyways, just looked it up again - IMHO, the 7650 was the first phone to hit Austria and Europe…with us, the 3650 came afterwards(and everyone bought like it like mad because of the MMC). But back then, I was cuddling a Tungsten T, and only watched S60 with one eye. However, it can very well be that some countries didn’t get the 7650 at all…
As a sidenote, wikipedia claims that:The phone(7650) was released on the second quarter of 2002 for around €600. It was notable for a number of firsts: first Nokia smartphone with the Symbian OS (version 6.1); first Series 60 platform device; first Nokia with built-in camera. The handset’s release was promoted in conjunction with the film Minority Report.
As for the incompatibility issues - IMHO, the binary breaks are intentional - Nokia does them to kill the existing devices every now and then and enforce upgrades…
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Yep, you’re right, 3650 was the first Symbian device only in US, but not in Europe.
Have to say, it’s a pretty usable device; okay, the camera is not for taking photos, only for MMS, and the circular keypad… I am a virtuose SMS-writer, but I could not even get to friendship with it for the 2 years while I was using it. Maybe that was the main reason why I’ve pressed “bet” button for a Nokia 9210i on Ebay (and I’ve won it).