Nokia plans to speed up the development of the Symbian platform by jumping over version 2 to offer version 3 featuring multi-touch functions in the third quarter of 2010 and then version 4 in late 2010 or early 2011, according to Michael Hsu, general manager of Nokia Taiwan.

The Symbian version 4 is believed to be based on the Qt cross-platform application development framework developed by Trolltech, which Nokia acquired in June 2008, said industry sources. The Qt will allow software developers to develop application software supporting Symbian and Maemo platforms simultaneously, added the sources.

For terminal end products, Nokia will continue to offer Maemo-based mobile computing devices, Symbian S60-based smartphones as well as Symbian S40-based feature phones, with the prices for Symbian S60-based models likely to be more competitive in 2010, Hsu said.

By 2011, smartphones based on the Symbian S60-platform will account for 55% of Nokia's total handset shipments, followed by Symbian S40 feature phones at 35% and Maemo-based devices at 10%, according to sources who are familiar with Nokia's product roadmap.

Nokia also plans to launch Maemo 6-based products in the second half of 2010, the sources added.

In other news, Nokia has launched its business-class E72 smartphone in the Taiwan market. The E72 supports multi e-mail systems, including Ovi mail, Yahoo Mail, Windows Live Hotmail and Gmail.

Nokia shipped 6.1 million E-series and 4.6 million N-series handsets in the fourth quarter of 2009, and shipments of E- and N-series handsets reached 18 million units each for all of 2009, according to Hsu.

 Source:DIGITIMES