Nokia, the Finnish cellphone giant has put to rest major contemplations surrounding its touch screen phone. A confirmation by one of the company’s executives reveals that a full touch screen handset should be launched of by the end of 2008.
Devinder Kishore, Nokia India’s marketing director, commented, “We have been working on the Series 60 platform for touch screen user interface and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end. With the acquisition of Symbian, we will be able to offer our customers more innovative products and the latest technology.”
On being questioned about the fastest growing mobile operating system, Apple’s OS X, he further added, “Symbian is the largest mobile phone software developer globally and it is up to our customers to decide how popular and accepted our software is”
The device will be Nokia’s second full touch screen phone to be released as the company had earlier released a touch screen phone in 2003, but it was later discontinued. Not much is known about the features of the present handset except that it should support Java and allow photos to be uploaded to the web. There are also speculations that the phone will be a telly-centric one with support for the DVB-H mobile digital TV standard
The eagerly anticipated handset codenamed as the Tube should appear before this Christmas. Presently, the company has its hands set on a series 60 platform for the touch screen user interface. The device also appeared in the latest Batman movie “The Dark Knight”.
Kishore asserted the release of the Nokia Music store in India by 2008 end. The Nokia Music Store was launched by the company last year. He mentioned that the music store was doing really well in the UK and the company hopes its success will be matched in India as well.
After the success of the Apple iPhone, the past year has seen many cellphone majors such as Samsung and LG bringing their full touch screen mobile phones in the market. Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of Blackberry is next on the list to work on a full touchscreen phone codenamed ‘Blackberry Thunder’.
Though Nokia had earlier mentioned that the phone is in development, they never really confirmed its launch until now.