Nokia vows touch phone in late 2008, no Windows

Nokia at its press conference for the Mobile World Congress expo set a timeframe for unveiling the company's first-ever touchscreen phone as well as clarified its operating system plans. Although few details have been released for the device itself, Nokia now intends to release a touchscreen phone in the second half of 2008. The handset will use an enhanced version of the Symbian Series 60 OS dubbed S60 Touch and is likely to sport many of the iPhone-like features showcased a year ago, including a natural-gesture photo browser and music playback controls.

However, reports of Nokia using Windows Mobile are currently false, company chief Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said during the event. While not willing to rule out the prospect entirely, the executive had no announcements of the sort for Mobile World Congress and stated that the company "[doesn't] have plans to do Windows in mobile at the moment." Kallasvuo did not acknowledge Microsoft claims that the two firms were in talks for a partial switch in the future to the pocket Windows OS.

The news partly curbs the expansion of Windows Mobile, which was aided by the unveiling of the XPERIA X1, Sony-Ericsson's first-ever Windows Mobile phone. The company has previously remained dedicated to Symbian through its UIQ interface.

Filed under: industry, gadgets
Other story tags: Microsoft, Nokia, Windows Mobile, Symbian