mobileu.co.uk

Nokia prices slashed as Symbian plans unveiled

The world's top mobile phone maker has slashed prices across various product lines, making the Nokia 5230 the cheapest Symbian smartphone on the market in the process.

Nokia is said to be going head-to-head with rival brands Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson in the mid-range phone bracket, where devices often feature good cameras or music players but lack computer-like open operating systems.

Research by Strategy Analytics has already highlighted that demand for cheaper smartphones helped the segment grow 30 per cent year on year in the final three months of 2009 – despite the recession. Because the growth is expected to continue in 2010, analysts note that Nokia needs to up the ante in its competition with brands like RIM, Apple and Samsung.

Meanwhile, it's been revealed that the mobile phone giant plans to speed up the development of the Symbian platform, bypassing version 2 to offer versions 3 and 4 later this year and into early 2011.

Version 4 of the operating system, believed to be based on Trolltech's Qt cross-platform application development framework, will enable developers to produce application software that supports Symbian and Maemo platforms simultaneously.