Nokia lays out plans for 2010, Symbian still prominent

Although the industry is more excited about Nokia's new Maemo platform, the Finnish gaming giant has been quite aggressive in stamping out rumours that Symbian is going the way of N-Gage.

Speaking at its annual Capital Markets Day, Nokia has been revealing its plans for 2010 and laying the foundations for a new business framework.

"In 2010, we will drive user experience improvements, and the progress we make will take the Symbian user interface to a new level," explains Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. "As an operating system, Symbian has reach and flexibility like no other platform, and we have measures in place to push smartphones down to new price points globally, while growing margins."

The official press release goes on to highlight the areas Nokia is moving to refine, with some interesting, though subtly vague, focuses on user experience and new hardware.

It plans to 're-engineer' the Symbian user interface alongside delivery of more touchscreen and QWERTY-equipped smartphones. A Maemo 6-powered laptop is also on the cards, and third party developers are promised better tools to create applications and content for the Ovi Store.

Nokia expects mobile device volumes to be up approximately 10 per cent over 2009 next year, though its own device volume share is pegged as being flat in 2010. Looking farther ahead, it rounds out predictions by re-pledging its target of 300 million active users by the end of 2011.