Nokia announced today it has updated the Symbian mobile operating system, despite ditching it as its primary software almost two months ago.
The Finnish manufacturer confirmed the update known as Symbian Anna on its blog, along with two new smartphones the Nokia E6 and the Nokia X7.
After reiterating its plans to sell 150 million devices based on the mobile OS in the coming years, Nokia listed a raft of new features included in Symbian Anna, such as fresh icons, split screen for typing, virtual portrait QWERTY and a revamped version of Ovi Maps.
It will ship on the new phones but will be available as an update to the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6 and Nokia E7 soon.
Handsets unveiled
The Nokia E6 is a full QWERTY device with the appearance of a BlackBerry. With a 2.4 inch screen and 640 x 480 resolution, it is hardly a top of the range device, but added features such as an eight mega-pixel camera and 8GB mass storage memory might entice users.
The Nokia X7 is a more modern looking touchscreen stainless steel device, which has already been confirmed to be sold on 3 in the UK. Along with its four inch OLED ClearBlack display, it features an eight mega-pixel camera, HD video recording capabilities and a 680MHz CPU.
Loyal to Symbian?
Although Nokia has made a song and dance about its new releases and software update today, the company has its focus elsewhere.
Back in February, Nokia announced a partnership with Microsoft to make Windows Phone 7 the primary software on its devices.
Although handsets have yet to be launched, rumours are rife about what is on the way and how much money both Microsoft and Nokia stand to make from the deal.
Today's announcements might just be Symbian's last hoorah with its previous backer.
