Where’s BBC News And BBC Sport For Symbian?

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By Mike Browne on February 18,

2010 at 00:00,

The BBC held its own press conference at Mobile World Congress outlining plans for BBC News and BBC Sport apps to role out across several platforms later this year. Symbian was conspicuous by its absence, so what is the Beeb playing at? Join us after the jump to find out more about apps for BBC News and BBC Sport...

Erik Huggers, Director of Future Media & Technology at the BBC, sat on a stage at the Mobile World Congress and outlined plans for BBC News and BBC Sport apps to be rolled out later this year for a host of smartphone platforms.

Sadly, Huggers forgot to mention Symbian, the smartphone platform that runs on 47 per cent of the world's smartphones. Now, the Beeb already does a stirling job of supporting Symbian with its iPlayer app, so why no clear mention that it would be rolling out the same level of care for the world's largest array of phones?

We have to agree with Jim Killock, of the Open Rights Group, who said on the BBC's own website that the BBC should concentrate on developing "open platforms" rather than building apps for closed systems such as the iPhone. "That way everyone can access the content regardless of what device they are using," he told BBC News.

We'll have to wait and see if the BBC changes its mind and brings Symbian into the list of platforms its developing for. Or is this all a cunning ruse and we're about to see a separate announcement for Symbian smartphones? What do you think? Let us know your feelings in the Comments below.

Via: BBC

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Alan

Does this mean that the BBC will give Symbian owners a refund against the licence fee as they are not providing a universal service?
Andrew

Symbian is dead.

Nokia is developing a new OS to enable them to catch up to where Apple is now, by which time, Apple will be further ahead.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/749b849e-1a9a-11df-bef7-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
Mikey Bee

But we’ll still be seeing Symbian devices in the future and what about the user-base now, surely the Beeb wants to appeal to current users as it does with iPlayer?
Zoltan

Symbian is nowhere near dead, it’ll be Nokia’s lower-middle range smartphone’s OS since it doesn’t need as much processing power as the newer Operating Systems. They redesign it too so it’ll be much more eye candy too. Not everybody can afford to pay for a 1GHz Cpu in their smartphones…

Maemo / MeeGo is going to be the high-end Nokia devices OS.
Andrew

@ Zoltan:

Really? Can you imagine Nokia dealing with the cost of supporting TWO competing OSes? and Apps being developed for two platforms from the same manufacturer? It\’s just not going to happen.
Symbian is a creaking dinosaur of an operating system compared to the modern alternatives.

Nokia got complacent with Symbian because it didn\’t need to be any better, until the iPhone was launched.
Andrew

Should you need any more proof that Symbian is dead, Here it is:

http://moconews.net/article/419-the-buzz-among-app-developers-at-this-years-mwc-may-surprise-you/