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.
