I have used Symbian phones, and every smartphone OS over the years. And no Symbian is not considered a smartphone platform, not only by myself, but by Nokia, and every software developer company out there currently.
A smartphone currently is a computer that makes phone calls, runs a scaled down desktop OS such as Android(linux) iOS (OSX) WebOS (linux) that can run desktop class applications. Symbian cannot do this. It is that simple. You will not see Symbian running on a tablet anytime soon.
Wake up, that is like saying DOS by itself is comparable to Windows 7. Sure both will run a computer but how will it run that computer you need to be asking yourself. Sure Symbian will run a phone, but how well? The definition of a smartphone has changed. The ability to run a App does not make a phone a smartphone, a dumb-phone will run a app. Just about any phone out there now will run apps.
How powerful are those apps and what can you do with them? That is the new definition of a smartphone. How powerful and widespread is the phone's OS. Can it run a desktop apps? Does it have support from developers in developing applications? Does it have a eco-system?
The painful answer to all these questions for Symbian is a huge no. If you can't see that you are disconnected with what is really going on in the mobile space. Most hardcore Symbian users are. Time to come back down to reality. Like I said Symbian is dead. I said this years ago. Called what happened yesterday back in 2007.
Nokia was never a software company, and when the iphone came out hardware is what sold high end phones, not software. The iphone changed all of that. That was the game changer. Now great software sells smartphones, not hardware. Nokia never got the memo. Refused to change. Now they are paying for it. It they would have acted quickly and realized the danger Apple posed as well Android they would have a whole eco-system already. I called the current smartphone market back in 2008 with the iphone and android. With software running the show and the best "eco-system' winning the show. That currently is Apple and Android.
RIM is next if they don't change. Soon.
I work in the industry and work with the companies you talk so much about. I called it on my last post because i knew what was going to happen before it happened. There was internal talk at the last second not going with Android. Trust me on this. If you don't believe I don't know what I am talking about just look at my previous posts, from five years ago, three years ago, and %95 percent of what I said has come to pass.
Either I know my stuff or I am the great descendant of Nostradamus.