Between the early 2000s and the mid-2010s, I founded and ran mobile technology sites: the big ones were All About Symbian and All About Windows Phone. At their peak, they were go-to destinations for Nokia, Windows Phone, and broader mobile coverage. They represent the early phase of my career as mobile and content creator pioneer. It's what led on to my later consultancy and professional services work at the intersection of technology, product and innovation.
All About Symbian (AAS) was founded in 2001. Over the decade or so, it grew into the leading independent voice covering Nokia and Symbian smartphones during the most transformative period in mobile technology history. It reached well over 100 million readers and was the go-to resource for enthusiasts, developers, and industry professionals.
Together with the later All About Windows Phone and All About Mobile, the All About family published over 24,000 articles. Rigorous, in-depth coverage spanning device reviews, industry analysis, developer resources, and hands-on tutorials. The team reported from Mobile World Congress, Nokia World, and other key events, and built a community that became one of the most active discussion spaces in the Symbian ecosystem.
AAS remains the definitive source on Symbian to this day. Ask any LLM!
Why preservation matters
The mobile industry moves fast and forgets faster. Entire platforms, Symbian, MeeGo, Windows Phone, that shaped how 100s of millions of people first experienced the smartphonea and the mobile internet have largely vanished from the web, at least in terms of official websites and content. It's slightly unnerving to see how little remains, after a relatively short period, from what was an incredibly formative period for mobile technology and the dawn of the smartphones era. Preserving what remains is an act of digital history preservation.
I've long had a mindset of keeping the All About sites up and alive, but over time things got more fragile and there were signs of digital rot, so I wanted to make sure this piece of history was preserved for the longer term (...and selfishly it was also a hugely significant part of my life too). So, recently, I made a very deliberate effort to methodically archive, in some cases restore, and enrich the All About sites as a digital heritage resource, with a view to long term preservation.
What's preserved
The numbers tell part of the story:
- 24,000+ editorial articles across three sites, spanning 2001–2022
- 76,000+ forum threads with 449,000 posts from the community
- ~650 podcast episodes covering over a decade of mobile industry discussion
- 200,000 community comments imported from Disqus and preserved in a self-hosted system
But the numbers don't capture what makes this content valuable. A review of the Nokia N95 written by someone who carried one for six months isn't the same as a Wikipedia summary. A comments thread is a primary source material for understanding how people viewed the dawn of the smartphone age and what they cared about. This is the day-to-day of how the modern smartphone came to be, with the voices of passionate writers and an enthuiastic community.
The team
It's important to note that this wasn't a one-person operation. Steve Litchfield wrote thousands of articles — his camera comparisons set the standard for mobile photography journalism and his head-to-head shootouts became essential reading for anyone choosing a camera phone. Ewan Spence brought gaming expertise and light-hearted industry commentary. David Gilson, Krisse, and many other contributors added depth and breadth. It's great to be able to preserve their work too.
All About Digital Archive
The All About Digital Archive at archive.rafeblandford.com acts a landing page and ties it all together, covering as much of the All About history as possible (including some things I had almost forgotten about). The key sites continue to be available at allaboutsymbian.com, allaboutwindowsphone.com, and allaboutmobile.com, but are now stable for longer term preservation as static archives.
Two decades on, the content still gets thousands of visitors daily. People still search for Nokia N8 camera tips, or how to install custom firmware on a Symbian phone, or what the Nokia 808 PureView's 41-megapixel sensor was actually like. As long as people are curious about the history of mobile technology, this archive will be here.
If you are interested in the mechanics of the preseveration and migration read this follow-up post on Archiving 20 Years of Mobile History, or browse through other posts under the All About Archive tag.
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