By a Nokia Fanboy

The Finnish mobile giant, Nokia has been in the business for over a 100 years now. Nokia has always been a company determined on their own paths of doing things. When most companies where porting Java, Windows Mobile,etc on their cellphones, Nokia betted on Symbian. Be it their low end phones(powered by s40, also known as Nokia OS) or high end phones(with Symbian s60), Nokia has always been able to make news with whatever they may do(be it success or failure).

Be it starting with the Symbian s40 OS or using Linux baseb Maemo(Which unfortunately could not survive long) or the latest PureView Technology(Currently on Nokia 808), Nokia made news everywhere(if not sales). Coming to the basics, the company has always delivered best in class hardware, be it for an average consumer, the Nokia 1100 being one of the most sold mobile device in the world or be it for high end users, the Nokia E7 is still considered to be one of the best hardware design company ever produced.

Being region specific, in Asia the company blended all its phone line with Symbian, till 2009, when the first Linux based Maemo OS running Nokia N900 was announced. On one hand, where companies like HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony(in later 2009) joined the Open Handset Alliance with Google for Android devlopment, Nokia continued with its Symbian.Various reports showed that Android(after iOS) being Open Source was the main threat to Nokia(or Symbian) because of which Nokia went through huge losses in US & some eastern countries too. It was then in 2011 when Nokia decided to pair up with Microsoft(who were already loosing market share with the dropping sales of Windows Mobile 6 & earlier) for The Windows Phone 7. Then came the Nokia's Windows powered handsets, The Nokia 800 & 710 from the Lumia Series(a.k.a. WP7 series by Nokia). The Nokia Lumia 800 turned out to be a huge success, not only in Asia, Europe but in U.S.(surprisingly) too. As a result of great hardware mixed with an equally fabolous OS, The Lumia 800 did record sales in the last quarter of 2011.

On one hand where Nokia stepped up again in the mobile market globally with Lumia series, it also announced its 2nd Linux based MeeGo OS running Nokia N9. Though the company never mentioned any future plans for devlopment of MeeGo. The Nokia N9 came as an opportunity for (underground)
devlopers to do something new with its 1ghz processor. Android 2.3 Gingerbread was already ported to Nokia N900(unofficially) with support for dual boot with Maemo, the Nokia N9 was taken to another level by a devloper community named NITDroid, which has successfully ported the latest offering by Android, The Ice Cream Sandwich(v4.0) to Nokia N9(Though final release is not out yet, but its available for flashing in alpha version).

One of the most asked question by people is, that why does'nt Nokia takes up Android?
They already have the best in class hardware, be it uni-body design, usage of poly-carbonate, 41mp Camera Sensor, etc. Then why not take up Android for its Software part? Android is much more open than any other OS & has the second biggest App Market(Google Play Store) are some of its advantages.

-Even Nokia has'nt ever been clear on this. They could have easily joined others for the Open Handset Alliance & taken up Android. But maybe thats what makes them diffrent. Companies like Nokia(& Apple) have their own odd ways of doing things. For them, its like thier legacy, which is being continued & thats the reason they haven't stopped manufacturing Symbian products even after taking up Window Phone. Certainly, Android & iOS are ruling the market right now but there is surely a long way to go for Nokia with Windows Phone & MeeGo.

Long Live Nokia in whatever you may do. \m/