Nokia officially ends 'Symbian era'

Embattled mobile maker Nokia has announced that the firm will stop producing its Symbian smart phone operating system.

In its earnings announcement, the Finland-based firm confirmed that the 808 PureView was the last new device.

The firm had earlier noted that Q4 2012 was the "last meaningful quarter for Symbian", and the new confirmation was not a surprise to industry observers, the Telegraph reports.

According to the report, Nokia's earnings release revealed that it sold 2.2 million Symbian units in Q4 2012, half as many as the Lumia range at 4.4 million.

Symbian was less than 14% of the overall 15.9 million smart phones.

Symbian was the biggest operating system in the world until it was overtaken by Apple, and was used from 1998 when it was a multi-brand proposition from Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Psion.

Nokia took complete control of it in 2008.