Windows Phone kills Symbian as Nokia strategy shifts

The writing for Symbian is on the wall – or on the slide, at least. As part of its financial presentation today, Nokia has illustrated the diminishing role Symbian will play as Windows Phone takes over its space in smartphones. The company also expects Windows Phone to eat into Nokia's Mobile Phone business.

However, as part of Nokia's "web for the next billion" strategy, the company will continue to focus on the Mobile Phone space and the "billions of aspirational consumers" in developing markets.

Symbian won't die instantly either; Nokia is expecting sales in the region of 150m in 2011, and potentially more. The OS will live on as a "franchise platform" beyond that ,while MeeGo will be treated as a development platform for exploring future platform possibilities.