Playing the hand you've been dealt
Until recently the launch of three new Nokia smartphones bearing a new version of Symbian would have been the stuff of teaser campaigns and lavish launch parties. But those days are a distant memory for the venerable smartphone platform, which is now relegated to the status of mass-market.
But that doesn't mean Symbian doesn't still have a place in the great smartphone scheme of things and, as the recent TouchPad retail-frenzy showed, people will still go for an unloved platform if the price is right.
This latest launch marks the debut of a new revision of Symbian, named ‘Belle', which comes hot on the heels of the general release of ‘Anna'. The fact that Nokia has chosen to give Symbian Alphabetical girl's names makes it all the more important us hacks avoid any typos when writing ‘Symbian', a consideration apparently overlooked by Nokia.
Belle is making its first appearance in three new ‘mass-market' (~£250) handsets: the 701, 700 and 600 - no letters - but it looks like the UK only gets the 700. Nokia's marketing focuses on the size of the 700 - 96 grams, 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm - as its USP, calling it ‘the most compact touch monoblock smartphone in the world'. The 701 seems to be all about the brightness of the screen, while the 600 is loud and has an FM transmitter.
The new OS itself has two new headline features detailed in the videos below (warning: annoying soundtracks). They are: NFC ‘tap to share and pair' functionality, and six new customisable home-screens.
"After bringing exciting new features to the Symbian user experience only two months ago with Symbian Anna, we are now driving the platform even further with our most competitive Symbian user experience ever," said Ilari Nurmi, VP at Nokia.
"Symbian Belle and the three new handsets we are launching today show our commitment to continue delivering Symbian products that allow people to choose what is most important to them in terms of user experience, design, functionality and price. These will not be last products or updates we will deliver on Symbian."
"With the announcement today Nokia has made it clear that Symbian will continue to play an important role in its product portfolio alongside Windows Phone 7," Nokia persuaded Nick McQuire of IDC to say. "There is a sense of urgency in the way improvements and innovation are being delivered to the platform that demonstrates how committed Nokia is to make Symbian products a competitive smartphone choice."
