Nokia planning to drop Symbian for top end phones
So what's the new N9 all about then?
Nokia has stated that it is dropping Symbian for all its high end N-series phones, replacing it with the new MeeGo OS.
This means that the much-vaunted Symbian^4 will only be used on the mid range handsets it's seeking to push into the hands of consumers to help maintain its share of the smartphone market.
"Going forward, N-series devices will be based on MeeGo," said Doug Dawson from Nokia.
"Symbian is enabling us to bring smartphones to more and more people and ensures the benefits of scale for our solutions and services, and for developers."
N8 getting a keyboard
What is odd is the new Nokia N9 (also known as the Nokia N8-01) has been snapped clearly running Symbian - meaning it's likely to be the Nokia N8 with a QWERTY keyboard slipped on the back.
However, just to make things confusing, it seems the N9 will be launched as a MeeGo device in the future - don't you love it when the internet rumour mill gets its wires crossed?
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Either way, it's good news that Nokia is pushing forward with a next generation OS - Symbian^3 hasn't exactly set our world on fire in the demos we've seen, so if Nokia comes out with a platform to rival Android and Apple's iOS then we could have another big player in the market once more.
Via Reuters and Unwired View
Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.