Even though Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has committed to Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform, Symbian is still on the company's U.S. radar. To that end, Nokia has teased some fresh Symbian releases for the U.S. market that it will unveil at an event at the CTIA Wireless 2011 trade show next week.
Nokia sent out an invitation to media outlets Tuesday for a press conference it will hold March 21 ahead of the official start of the trade show in Orlando, Fla. "We promised to sell millions more Symbian devices," the invitation states. "Join us as we spotlight our latest solutions for U.S. customers."
There has been speculation that Nokia could unveil the C7, which Federal Communications Commission documents indicate is heading toward T-Mobile USA. The C7, which runs Symbian^3, was released worldwide in October and sports a 3.5-inch AMOLED display and an 8-megapixel camera. The device also reportedly has NFC capabilities.
Nokia CFO Timo Ihamuotila reiterated at an investor conference earlier this month that Nokia is committed to "the long tail of Symbian as long as it gives us profitable margin." Nokia has said it intends to sell 150 million more Symbian phones during the next few years of its transition to Windows Phone. Nokia has an installed user base of around 200 million Symbian phones worldwide. The company plans to update Symbian's user interface this year.
In other Nokia news, the company applied for a tablet design patent in May with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that was recently made public. Nokia has not articulated a clear tablet strategy -- Microsoft has said its Windows Phone 7 platform is not intended for tablets, but Nokia's Symbian and MeeGo efforts could potentially be applied to the gadgets.
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