Nokia will release touch screen phone by 2008 end

[Amol21]

Setting at rest speculations, cell phone major Nokia has confirmed it will launch a full touch screen handset by the end of this year.

'We have been working on the Series 60 platform for touch screen user interface and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end,' Devinder Kishore, Nokia India's marketing director, told IANS.

The Nokia full touch screen phone, codenamed the 'Tube' was also featured in the latest Batman movie 'The Dark Knight' and will be Nokia's second full touch screen device, the first of which was launched in 2003 but was later discontinued.

The past year has seen cell phone majors such as Samsung and LG debuting their full touch screen mobile phones in the market after the success of the Apple iPhone.

It is widely anticipated that Research in Motion (RIM) - the makers of Blackberry - are also working on a full touch screen phone, codenamed 'Blackberry Thunder'.

Nokia first unveiled the touch screen S60 interface last October.

'The new software would allow licensees to develop devices with a variety of input methods, such as touch screen with traditional keypad, QWERTY keyboard, or standalone touch screen, supporting both finger or stylus optimised input,' a Nokia statement had then stated.

Mobile phone maker Symbian Ltd, in which Nokia held a majority stake till a few months ago, has developed the S60 platform.

The Finnish giant announced the acquisition of the remaining 52 percent stake in Symbian in June this year from Sony Ericsson, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens.

'With the acquisition of Symbian, we will be able to offer our customers more innovative products and the latest technology,' Kishore said.

On being asked about the Apple's OS X, the fastest growing mobile operating system, Kishore said: 'Symbian is the largest mobile phone software developer globally and it is up to our customers to decide how popular and accepted our software is.'

OS X recently displaced Microsoft Windows for mobiles as the number three mobile phone operating system after Symbian and Blackberry.

Google, which some time back announced the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), is also working on a mobile OS - Android, based on the Linux platform.

Kishore said the Nokia Music store, which the company launched last year, will be opened in India by the year-end.

'The music store is doing well in the UK and we hope the success will be matched when it is launched in India,' he said.