Symbian 44%, Apple iPhone 15%

If the market share of Symbian’s Smartphone operating system is nearly three times as large as Apple’s (as of 2010, Q1), why aren’t more developers creating apps?

More importantly, are businesses missing an important market?

Contrary to popular believe—at least in the United States—Symbian has by far the largest installed base of Smartphones running its operating system.  Yet it is rarely discussed in the media.  I believe there are three key reasons for this.

One, Symbian is closely associated with Nokia and Nokia phones have in recent years—again, in the U.S.—been difficult to find.

Two, unlike Apple’s iPhone and App Store, Symbian has operated as more of a traditional “open” system.  This openness may be good for developers and some users but Apple has proven (so far) that people are willing to give Apple control over what they can and can’t do with their phones in return for convenience and, perhaps, safety.

Three, Symbian has been around much longer so there are more versions of their operating system. More versions mean it is more expensive for developers to create apps and in fact certain features won’t run on all devices.  (However this is changing for Apple too.)

Being curious about these questions led me to Chris Woods, a long-time developer of Symbian apps.  At the time we met he had a featured app, TextQuick, on the Symbian Horizon home page.

Here is the transcript of our interview:

Why Symbian?  Does it offer capabilities that other mobile OS’s don’t?

Symbian has a huge installed base of users, worldwide coverage and choice within its ecosystem. It is not as locked down as other mobile platforms. Unlike the iPhone Symbian has always allowed applications to launch and run in the background. Symbian also offers access to some of the phone’s low level functionality.

To demonstrate the power and flexibility of Symbian Nokia ported the Apache web server and had a complete enterprise grade web service running on a mobile phone. Imagine being able to log into your phone on the internet, access the camera to see where the phone is, send a text, or make a call from your phone using a website.

There are also no restrictions on what type, style, or method of development you can use on Symbian. Most Symbian devices support applications written in a wide style of languages, from web applications in HTML and JavaScript, through to Java applications and C / C++ applications.

In contrast, Apple restricts the type and format of the applications you can create for their device. On RIM (Blackberry) only Java applications are allowed. While Android is based on Linux, 3rd party applications are restricted to its own form of Java. On Windows Phone 7 applications will have to be developed in C# and Silverlight.

It seems like there are far fewer apps for Symbian.  Is this true?  Where do you see the opportunities?

There do seem to be fewer Symbian applications than you would expect, given the maturity of the platform.  There are two key factors which drive this. First is probably the diverse range of distribution points for Symbian applications as the ecosystem supports a number of retail options.  Secondly in my opinion are the after effects of a poorly implemented application validation program called Symbian Signed.

Application Distribution

As mentioned above there are a good number of Symbian applications, however unlike Apple’s store they are not grouped together in one place. There are a number of online stores through which developers can sell their applications. These include the 3rd party store Handango, and Ovi store run by Nokia. In addition a number of mobile networks provide their own stores.

This is an advantage of the Symbian ecosystem – there is a choice of stores, and retail locations. However it also poses a challenge to developers as there can be a number of distribution points.

To help developers overcome this Symbian launched the Symbian Horizon program which is aiming to be a central warehouse of applications for a number of major stores, including Ovi.

For some organizations this choice of retail location or download point can be a real plus. You can host your application on your own web server – unlike Apple’s distribution model you don’t have to place your application on someone else server.

Symbian Signed

Symbian and Nokia have recently been investing a lot of time in revamping their developer ecosystem.

Around 2006, in response to mobile operator pressure, Symbian introduced their trusted computing platform. This allowed Symbian to control the applications distributed for their OS and developers had to abide by a set of rules. Developers had to submit their application to a third-party testing house for certification. This is what Symbian called Symbian Signed.

This was actually a necessary and sensible precaution. Imagine a rogue application like a Trojan virus installed on millions on mobile devices across a single network or country all dialing the emergency services at the same time. Not only would the networks go down, but it would impact emergency services.

Unfortunately the original version of Symbian Signed was strict and expensive. As a result it discouraged developers from investing in the platform. For example, depending on what you wanted your application to do the cost could be as much as $1000 a year for a certificate, and €500 per application for testing (yes, different currencies).  You can find my original 2007 blog post about this here, and Symbian’s response here.

I am happy to report that current charges are much lower, at $200 a year for a certificate and most app testing is free. In addition Symbian launched the Symbian Horizon program which allows developers to submit their applications to the Ovi store without even the need for the $200 certificate.

Do you think Symbian can compete with the iPhone, Android and other app stores and why?

With Ovi and Symbian Horizon I do think that Nokia can make a huge impact.

Symbian’s installed base is by far the largest of any Smartphone manufacturer. While Nokia/Symbian users have traditionally been unaware that they can purchase applications for their device, Nokia is readdressing this with their Ovi store.  Ovi now comes preinstalled on devices and allows users to purchase content directly from their handset. Additionally Symbian’s Horizon program is making it easier for developers to launch applications for the platform.