Nokia is the ultimate leader of the Symbian platform, which dominates the smartphone market leaving Windows Mobile far behind. The Finnish developers are actively improving S60, so far licensed by such influential companies as Samsung, LG and others. SonyEricsson are actively supporting UIQ (at the same time having joined the circle of Microsoft licencees) just as well as Motorola does and a number of lesser market players. The sales volume compared, WM sells in approximately four times as small numbers as Symbian, this gap separating it from the leader only further supported by the variety of Nokia’s portfolio. The first solutions based off the brand new S60 Touch are expected to appear this year, which will build up a formidable market challenge to its competitors.

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Various form factors will be used for the new model range, including candy bars lacking keypads. The retail sales are due to begin in the second half year. The prices are estimated to be higher than those asked for the solutions based off the traditional S60, and both platforms will be developing in a parallel fashion – analogously to Windows Mobile split into Standard used for the smartphones, Professional which is used for PDAs and the rarely encountered Classic variant used for a limited number of PDAs lacking GSM modules. Nokia have already declared that they aren’t going to license any of Microsoft’s products like SE did, but rather will get down to developing their own UIQ analog equipped with a touchscreen. This was aired at Mobile World Congress 2008. Below you will find our initial impressions of the novelty.

The S60 ideology provides for the maximum inheritance of features and platform architecture passing from the older solutions to the emerging ones. Also that’s a point of great importance for the long-time core fans, since there will be but a very short learning curve to face due to the same menu and application structure used for the touchscreen versions. The pop-up menu summoned by holding the stylus pressed for a few seconds is quite remarkable – another allusion to Windows Mobile (even the status circle speaks for itself). It’s possible to drag and drop the menu window. The gallery is implemented in a fashion similar to Touch, iPhone and the same ilk – there’s an option for horizontal slide showing, and the final version will feature a smooth animation for that action. The dial center is reamarkable for the full Caller ID support.

The touchscreen version of the platform doesn’t bring up a necessity for developing new software, a full mutual compatibility with the existing applications is guaranteed. A number of programs, though, will sport certain optimizations offering a few extended functions exclusive to the touchscreen build. A number of touch-only utilities will be included, and these won’t run with the regular non-touch version of the device, however the number of them is going to be very limited, at least for the closest future. Yet once more Nokia are borrowing from Microsoft’s experience which almost never tried making revolutions when it came to software compatibility between platform versions.

The input capabilities is another concern worth paying attention; these no longer yield to WM. In particular, an OCR unit is included, more than 15 languages are supported. Our tests revealed a high efficiency on a level closely approaching what the vendor actually claims. A traditional virtual keyboard goes alongside in two versions: miniature and screen-sized. The latter option eliminates the necessity for stylus, however one will be included into the sales package of every model within the range. It’s needless to say S60 touch supports T9.

Let's get the things straight. New S60 Touch is not revolutionary, but evolutionary, but this is its main advantage in the end. The platform, interface will remain the same, everybody will recognize it as a classic S60, but with touchscreen possibilities. If Nokia won't be too late on the market, new version of UIQ and Windows Mobile will get very serious contender by the end of the year.