Symbian’s days may be numbered, but Nokia has promised to continue supporting the operating system through 2016, even as it gets ready to start releasing smartphones with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 in the future. But apparently the partnership between the two companies isn’t a one-way street. Microsoft has also developed software that could make Symbian a heck of a lot more useful soon.

Starting soon users with devices running Symbian Belle will be able to install a new Microsoft Apps Suite. That includes:

• Microsoft Document Connection is for viewing documents on your mobile device. It supports email attachments and SharePoint documents.
• Microsoft PowerPoint Broadcast lets you view PC presentations on a mobile device.
• Microsoft Lync 2010 Mobile is a communications tool with support for IM, voice, and web conferencing.
• Microsoft OneNote will sync notes with users’ SkyDrive accounts.

Sure, the Symbian operating system is on its way out. But if you’ve already got a Nokia C6-01, C7, E7, or N8 you can now download the latest version of the doomed mobile operating system to breathe a little new life into your device while we wait for Nokia to chuck to Symbian to the side and start selling phones with Windows Phone 7.

The Symbian Anna software update adds an attractive new user interface, an improved on-screen keyboard that works in landscape or portrait mode and which doesn’t cover the whole screen as you type, and a faster web browser.

There’s also support for Near Field Communications technology if you’re using the Nokia C7, and better support for data encryption.

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Nokia will start offering smartphones running Windows Phone 7 in the US and other markets later this year. But for the next year or two the company will continue to offer phones running the Symbian operating system as well as cheaper “feature phones” with web browsing, chat, and other internet apps — it just won’t offer them in the US.

All Things D reports that once Nokia starts selling Windows Phone 7 devices in the States, it will pull out of the Symbian and feature phone spaces.

The single-minded focus on Windows Phone 7 for the US also helps explain why Nokia has no plans to launch the N9 smartphone running MeeGo software in the United States.

Symbian phones were never very popular in the States anyway. The operating system was one of the dominant smartphone platforms in Europe up until recently, but the OS has been losing market share to iOS, Android, and other platforms in recent years.

Nokia has already promised to offer support and software updates for Symbian phones for the next 5 years, so if you’re currently using a Symbian smartphone you might not need to replace it anytime soon.

The Nokia N9 is the first and last phone the company plans to make running the MeeGo Linux operating system. That might be enough to convince you not to buy the phone, since any apps you purchase probably won’t be able to run on the next phone you buy in a few years. But it’s still nice to have a chocie, because the N9 looks like a pretty awesome phone.

Unfortunately if you’re in the US, the choice is pretty simple — because Engadget reports Nokia won’t be offering the N9 in the States. There’s also mounting evidence that the N9 won’t be available in the UK either.

The Nokia N9 has a 3.9 inch, 854 x 480 pixel curved AMOLED display and a 1 GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 3630 processor. The phone’s camera has an 8MP sensor and a wide-angle 28mm lens.

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Sure, Nokia plans to switch from Symbian to Windows Phone 7 for its future smartphones. But those phones won’t be ready to go until next year and the complete transition could take a full two years. In the meantime Nokia is continuing to do a little work on the Symbian mobile operating system and today the company announced that a handful of phones will ship with the new Symbian Anna interface starting in July.

The phones that will get the new software are the Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7, and Nokia C6-01. Nokia will also make Anna available as a download for customers that already have those phones in August.

Symbian Anna includes a faster web browser, better text input, a more powerful map applications and new icons. The update also adds business communications and security features, mobile check-ins with Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, and an enhanced social client.

Nokia has been working on a new Linux-based smartphone operating system for a couple of years. Originally called Maemo, the project merged with the Moblin netbook Linux project a while back to become MeeGo, a customizable, robust touch-friendly Linux-based operating system. Eventually the plan was to use MeeGo instead of Symbian in high-end smartphones. But then Nokia decided to sign a partnership with Microsoft to use Windows Phone 7 instead and most people figured that was the end of Nokia’s MeeGo ambitions.

But it turns out Nokia will launch one consumer device based on MeeGo. The company has unveiled a new smartphone called the Nokia N9. It’s a slick looking smartphone with the specs to match including a 3.9 inch, 854 x 480 pixel curved AMOLED display, a 1 GHz TI OMAP 3630 processor, and an 8MP camera with a wide-angle 28mm lens.

The phone runs a new finger-friendly version of MeeGo which looks absolutely wonderful in the demo videos (although that’s kind of what demo videos are for). There’s a Webkit-based browser, a maps application with turn-by-turn navigation, and a user interface designed for fingure input including support for swipe-from-the-screen-edge gestures to switch between functions.

Overall it looks like a great phone and it’s a shame that because it’s likely to be the first and last MeeGo phone from Nokia it’s unlikely that you’ll see a huge push for third party apps or other new features for the phone. That said, MeeGo is open source software and it’s possible that we could see other developers pick up the torch and carry on.

Nokia is also releasing a new phone aimed at developers called the Nokia N950. It’s similar to the N9 in many respects, but it has a slide-out keyboard and a 4 inch display. This model won’t be sold at retail, but instead will be made available to MeeGo developers.

via The Nokia Blog

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Nokia may be preparing to switch from Symbian to Windows Phone 7 for future devices, but the company doesn’t want you to stop buying existing phones while waiting for new models. But how do you convince someone to invest in a dying platform? By convincing them it’s not exactly dying…

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop says the company will continue to offer software updates and support for Symbian at least until 2016. In other words, for several years after the company stops selling Symbian phones, Nokia will continue to support the products. So if you buy a Symbian device today, odds are that you’ll upgrade to a different phone before Nokia stops offering support.

That said, as Nokia transitions away from Symbian I suspect fewer and fewer developers will be interested in writing apps for the platform, which means that you might want to look at Android, iOS, or another mobile operating system if third party apps are a big selling point for you.

via All About Symbian

Microsoft and Nokia announced earlier this year that the cellphone company would begin making smartphones running Windows Phone software. Now Nokia is confirming that it’s first such phones will run the next version of Windows Phone, code-named Mango. It’s due out this fall, although it’s not yet clear if Nokia will actually offer Mango phones this fall or early next year.

Nokia has said in the past that it could take 2-years to make the transition from Symbian to Windows Phone (although that might be the timeline for a total transition, meaning Symbian and Windows Phone will co-exist for a while).

You can find out more about Mango in the demo video after the break, which not only shows the new operating system, but also compares certain features to Android, iOS, and BlackBerry.

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