Last year, Nokia decided that it no longer needed Symbian anymore. Nope. The home grown mobile operating system needed to go. Instead, Nokia decided Microsoft would serve as its shining light to face the iPhone and Android onslaught.

Nokia turned to Accenture to manage the Symbian sunset. As part of the deal, 1,200 Nokia employees joined the Accenture ranks.

According to YLE News,  now it appears that all did not work out so well for those spun out to Accenture. About 400 employees have since left or are in the process of receiving severance agreements.

Most of these people are developers who just got tired of doing just about nothing with their new employer.

The news reflects the diminished value for the Symbian OS. According to Comscore’s latest report, Android represents half of U.S. smartphone market. Symbian has a 1.5% share.

But what a lost opportunity for Nokia. It lost hundreds of developers. That’s striking, considering the deep demand today for people with programming skills. Nokia made the cuts to save money and look fiscally responsible in the eyes of the shareholders. How shortsighted. I doubt those developers would return to their former employer.

What do you think? Did Nokia lose an opportunity by farming out its Symbian team to Accenture?