Symbian left reeling as executive director steps down

Mobile operating system looks rudderless as Lee Williams quits

The Symbian Foundation has been dealt another major blow after executive director Lee Williams stepped down for personal reasons, bringing his two-year tenure to an end as the platform continues its downward spiral.

Tim Holbrow has been promoted from chief financial officer to the position of executive director with immediate effect.

Symbian is still reeling after the latest version of the software received a lukewarm reception, and a number of smartphone manufacturers decided to ditch the platform.

The Williams announcement is not a huge surprise, but the future of Symbian now hangs in the balance, according to Nick McQuire, EMEA research director for enterprise mobility at analyst firm IDC.

"Symbian still has user interface and software challenges it needs to address in the future to compete in high-end consumer smartphones. We may see these overcome in future iterations of Symbian," he told V3.co.uk.

"In the meantime it's still a guessing game, and Symbian will have to shake off the perception that it's rudderless at the moment."

The Symbian Foundation was formed by Nokia in 2008 after the handset manufacturer announced plans to buy the Symbian mobile operating system developer.

However, despite a promising start, Nokia and Symbian have struggled to gain a firm foothold in the high-end smartphone market.

Samsung became the latest manufacturer to withdraw support for the platform, signalling the end of Symbian in its high-end devices.

This followed Nokia's announcement earlier this year that the N8 smartphone will be one of the last high-end devices to use Symbian as the company is developing its own MeeGo operating system.

Sony Ericsson also stated that it will not release any more handsets with the Symbian platform for the time being.

Holbrow will have a difficult task reviving Symbian's fortunes, but Nokia will continue to use the S60 platform in its mid- and low-end ranges, and the operating system is still expected to dominate the global mobile market along with Android, according to Gartner's latest figures.