Celluloco.com Alert : Nokia holds back S40 to make way for Maemo and Symbian

Today, at its annual Capital Markets Day event, Nokia revealed some details about it OS distribution strategies that we find particularly interesting. Apparently the company has finally realized two important things concerning its products. First, that the Maemo OS has great potential and second that their S40 feature phone UI is long outdated (at least in the midrange).

So in the following years Nokia plans to reduce the amount of S40 devices that it releases and increase the percentage of smartphones in its portfolio. Both platforms currently utilized by the Finnish company (Symbian and Maemo) are planned to increase their share. The good news is that the not quite polished touch Symbian OS S60 5th edition should see a much sought-after update next year.

We were actually hoping that S40 will be shown the door even faster than that (or at least treated to a total overhaul) but it's still some improvement and we appreciate it.

Here are some other interesting points made by Nokia in their report.: Nokia expects the amount of mobile phones sold in 2010 to be 10 percent higher, compared to 2009. The company expects to maintain its market share of 38% throughout the next year but admits that the average selling price of its devices will decrease.

Read more »

Nokia might make Maemo O.S. its new choice for its smartphones

The Maemo marketing team shared with fellow tech journalists that Nokia plans for their N-series smartphones heavily relay on the Maemo OS. After finishing up the handsets that are currently in the works, they will make Maemo their primary OS of choice for these high-end multimedia devices.

At a Maemo event held in London yesterday, the marketing team behind the mobile OS revealed that Nokia plans to drop the use of Symbian in their N-series lineup.

Based on the excitement surrounding the Nokia N900 announcement, Nokia top brass has decided that by 2012 Maemo OS will be the official face of the Nokia high-end family. All Symbian N-series devices currently under development will be launched as planned.

There are still no plans of bringing Maemo OS to the E or X series, but Nokia are surprised by the wide interest in N900 and its operating system, so getting Maemo there is not completely ruled out as well.

Nokia promise to continue supporting both Symbian and Maemo, and will expand their official app stores - Maemo Select and Ovi Store with more and more applications. By 2012 there should be enough apps to allow the OS to become a mainstream hit.

Read more »