It’s nearly here!
After last year’s Symbian Smartphone show where the much leaked Sony Ericsson P990 finally got a public airing and Nokia released the first three Eseries devices in a surprise move, what have we got in store this year?
New UIQ phones? I’d like to hope so, but given the time to market for the P990 you have to question Sony Ericsson’s commitment. New Eseries phones? Possibly, it’s been quite a while since the fifth and latest Eseries device the Nokia E50 was announced, however now that Nokia have a comprehensive range of Eseries devices, do they need to confuse businesses with a bigger range? This isn’t the fashion following world of consumer and multimedia devices. So quite possibly no new phones will be announced, maybe that’s no big problem, as by my reckoning there are at least 4 or 5 announced Symbian phones that aren’t shipping yet and there’ll be plenty more under development. The only likely Eseries devices might be the rumoured E80 and E90 communicators, but I think that’s a long shot.
Software wise, I think we’re almost going to see a Telco2.0 focus, VoIP and data heavy apps are going to dominate. The signs are that Skype are likely to release their Symbian client at last, a year ago I’d have expected them to need operator support, but given they’re now the 3rd largest global telco in terms of user numbers I think they’ve got plenty of clout to push this product out. Symbian’s Smartphone Radio “podcasts” give a heavy nod towards the major themes the keynote speakers will be attacking, it’s going to be fun!
Anything else? Well it’s full-on party season, what with the AAS Pub meet, Symbians ‘secret’ party and Swedish beers plus plenty of other smaller private bashes that clash with these events, d’oh!
