1. Nokia held its annual Capital Markets Day on December 2nd 2009 in Finnish capital Helsinki, and it was here, Nokia said in BOLD letters and presentations and words, that Symbian is their smartphone platform of choice.
2. “We will continue to invest in Symbian as our dominant smart-phone platform in the foreseeable future,” said Nokia Chief Executive Olli Pekka-Kallasvuo.
3. “Let me be clear. Symbian is our platform of choice. Today, and in the future,” added Dr. Kai Oistamo, Nokia Executive Vice President, Devices.”
4. During the presentation from Dr. Kai Oistamo, some screenshot mockups of what is to be believed as the redesigned Symbian^3 UI made an appearance. You can view the video HERE.
5. AllAboutSymbian and Engadget did some coverage and pretty much summed everything up.
6. I want to share what I think of the new mockup. I understand this doesnt mean anything because what we see now are only mockups and designs. Not the real thing running on real hardware and available for public. But what the heck 
I am excited to see Symbian’s overhauled.
Symbian^3 UI Multiple Home Screens
My comment
- Probably, this is Symbian^3. It does look similar to the current homescreen implementation on Nokia N97 and N97 Mini (both are Symbian^1).
- The little dots at the bottom of the screen indicates the multiple screens and which one is displayed.
- The left softkey area is still labelled as “Options” and the right softkey is labelled “Calls”. Meaning it is still using design reference from S60.
Concept - Probably Symbian^4 UI Home Screen Landscape
Concept - Probably Symbian^4 UI Home Screen Portrait
My comment
- This looks like a new home screen for Symbian^4.
- Notice how the battery and network indicator are placed together on the top-left to optimise screen real estate and give space to Application launcher (aka S60 Menu), and a dropdown arrow which indicates a sensitive context menu which will change according to applications.
- The widgets on the home screen also looks more organic and blends with the system. They comes in different sizes and shapes and different levels of transparency. This, together with the multiple home screens reminds me a lot of Maemo 5 on N900
Concept - Probably Symbian^4 UI Photo Gallery Portrait
Concept - Probably Symbian^4 UI Photo Gallery Landscape
My comments
- The photo gallery shows some interesting concepts. Notice the “Back” button on the top right? It reminisce me of UIQ 3′s back button
- The Application launcher shortcut is not displayed. Probably to make more space.
- There’s also a dropdown arrow next to the “Back” button, probably will be used to host options and menu.
- 4 shortcuts to the most used functions are present. This includes sharing, or posting it to online services. Meaning direct access without digging into menu.
- The display is also optimised and you can see photos inside photo for easy browsing and jumping from one photo to another.
- The landscape screenshot mockup shows the battery and network indocator are grouped together to the left of the screen and the 4 shortcuts.
Concept - Probably Symbian^4 UI Music Album Browser
Concept - Probably Symbian^4 UI Video Player
My comments
- The music player looks like implementing the popular Coverflow idea made famous by Apple
- This kind of thing require more powerful graphics technology. I guess, Symbian’s Screenplay is used.
- The Video player, also has some special laver for controlling buttons. Probably the controls only appear when the video is paused or when the screen is touched.
- I’m not saying this is good or bad but designing a new and intuuitive and iconic User Interface is not an easy thing to do. Nokia, among others, should be applauded with its effort in redesigning Symbian’s UI.
Final thought
1. It’s great to see Nokia emphasizing on it’s long term Symbian support
2. From the mockups, there’s not much to be excited. But I can see some design consistencies and unified philosophy. This is important to make the UI consistent in all aspects.
3. Again, please bear in mind that what we see now are just mockups. From now to the end of 2010, there’s a plenty of time and things may change.
4. These mockups are showing touch screen UI only. Which is great but I think, there are many things that Nokia and Symbian have not revealed to us public.
5. I believe Nokia and Symbian are also cooking a new UI for non-touch smartphones.
Oh my… The next 1 year gonna be very interesting with regards to the Symbian world…
- Asri al-Baker