Nokia Holds Back Symbian 3

Nokia has reportedly delayed the release of the Symbian 3 smartphone operating system on its phones and mobile devices due to quality issues.

Nokia said it held back Symbian 3 “because it fell short of internal quality guidelines,” MarketWatch said on 22 April.

In a news release about its first-quarter financial results, Nokia said: “Nokia is planning to deliver a family of smartphones based on the Symbian 3 software platform that is targeted to offer a clearly improved user experience, a high standard of quality, and competitive value to consumers. We plan to launch the first smartphone based on Symbian 3 during the second quarter 2010, with shipments expected during the third quarter 2010.”

Open Sourcing Symbian OS

The Symbian Foundation touted its completion of the process of open-sourcing the Symbian OS in February. “The Symbian Platform … has been developed over 10 years and has shipped in more than 330 million devices around the world,” the foundation said on 4 Feb.

However, according to MarketWatch, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said during a conference call after the company’s first-quarter results were announced: “We will not ship the product before the quality meets the end user’s needs and demands.”