Nokia To Launch N8 Symbian^3 Phone

Symbian today announced that Nokia’s upcoming N8 smartphone will be the first device to run on its Symbian^3 (S^3) open source operating system.

The Nokia N8 will offer multiple personalised home screens, single tap and multi-touch gesture support, improved memory and graphics and a more responsive user interface. According to the official Nokia blog, the N8 is carved from a single piece of anodised aluminium and includes a 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash.

Lee Williams, Executive Director of Symbian, said he was “stoked” by the news. “S^3 enables an unparalleled set of options for device creators and app developers to extend the usefulness of Symbian products and services and, in turn, enhance the lives of mobile consumers,” he said. “This is an example of what is possible with the latest and greatest version of the Symbian platform.”

iPhone killer?

The N8 will be available in five colours, and comes with access to the full range of Nokia’s online Ovi services and integration with Nokia’s Qt development platform. It will start shipping in the third quarter of 2010, costing €370 (£320) before tax.

The Symbian Foundation unveiled its Symbian^3 platform at Mobile World Congress in February. It is the company’s first entirely open source release, following its transition to an open source licence at the beginning of this year.

Industry watchers were somewhat disappointed, after a highly publicised event by Nokia at the beginning of April turned out not to be the launch of the N8 – which some predict will emerge as a challenger to Apple’s iPhone. Instead Nokia launched three social networking focused devices – the C3, C6 and E5 – aimed at consumers who live online.

The N8 launch was originally slated for May, but has since been put back to July, with no reasons given for the delay. Some have speculated that this could be due to the billed launch of Apple’s new iPhone, which is thought to arrive in June.