Nokia's Elop Reveals End-Date For Symbian Software Releases

Time after time, when discussing Symbian since news of its transition to Windows Phone 7 became public, Nokia has tried reassuring its Symbian-running user base that their phones are in no danger of being abandoned, that the company will continue to support the hardware and software through the end of their natural product lives, even long after its first WP7 handset is available. Nokia CEO Stephen Eloprecently sat down to talk about his company and the future of Symbian, finally putting some actual dates to these predictions for Symbian's future. 

According to Elop, we can expect to see software support for Symbian last up until 2016. Assuming a normal smartphone lifespan, that means that Nokia will likely be selling new Symbian smartphones for the next few years, stopping around 2014. Of course, by that point Nokia will be well into production of Windows Phone 7 devices, which will make up the lion's share of its high-end handsets. Symbian will give Nokia the opportunity to release more affordable smartphones in the markets that demand such products, but don't expect any high-profile releases towards the end of its life. 

Elop himself showed off his Symbian-love by revealing that his personal phone of choice at the moment is the company's gilded Oro, the 18-karat-gold-plated $1100 C7. And to think we were wondering who would actually be interested in such a smartphone; it's good to be the boss. 



Source: Into Mobile