Nokia finally calls time on Symbian, shipments to cease this summer

Nokia has revealed shipments of Symbian handsets will draw to an end this summer, with the firm's 808 PureView serving as its last handset to run the OS.

Though Symbian was once the dominant force at the Finnish giant, rapidly plummeting market share caused Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to realign the firm with Microsoft in 2011, adopting Windows Phone in the process.

Lumia love

Two years on and Nokia's share in the smartphone market is only now beginning to recover, with just 500,000 Symbian devices having been sold during the first quarter of 2013.

In comparison, the same period saw Nokia ship 5.6 million Lumia devices running Windows Phone.

"The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia," the company confirmed in a statement.

808 PureView

Indeed, it's widely regarded that the legacy of the 808 PureView which was always pitched as something of an experiment rather than a genuine commercial prospect will be a Windows Phone handset packed with the same camera technology that was the Symbian device's signature.

For the moment, however, Nokia will be focusing on the launch of the flagship Lumia 925, which has just gone on sale in Europe.

[source: Financial Times]