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Feb. 3, 2010

Nokia has been saying for many months now that it was in the process of upgrading its two main operating systems for its mobile phones: Maemo and Symbian.

According to Michael Hsu, General Manager of Nokia's Taiwan manufacturing facility, Nokia is right on schedule to release the upgrades.

Symbian version 3.0 is expected some time around mid-April, which will hopefully bring nice features such as faster scolling, multiple home screens, a cleaner interface and multi-touch support to MIDs (mobile Internet devices).

Symbian version 4.0 is set to be released to mobile apps developers around October 2010, with wireless phones based on it coming next year.

This should sport better user interface options, cooler photo galleries and some improved user controls.

It is hoped that the new OS upgrades will help push Nokia into the smartphone territory being explored by Apple, Sony Ericsson, Palm, Samsung and Motorola, by allowing support for HDMI output and larger high-definition files as well.

Maemo ver. 6, the actual successor of Maemo v. 5 that is used on the Nokia N-900 smartphone is expected to be upgraded some time in September but only for the U.K. market, however.

But not much is known about Maemo 6 other than it will have a portrait mode, support multi-touch and work on capacitive screens, which both Apple and Google have been already experimenting with for many months now.

At the end of December, Nokia filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple’s computers, iPhone and iPods all infringe on no less than seven Nokia patents.

The patents in question cover various technology used in wireless devices’ user interface, camera, antenna and power management system.

The complaint comes just barely two months after Nokia filed a similar lawsuit against Apple in a Delaware U.S. District court, alleging that the iPhone infringes on ten patents that cover technologies which connect devices to various wireless networks.

"This latest action is all about protecting the results of such pioneering development,” said Paul Melin, General Manager, Patent Licensing at Nokia.

He added “and while our litigation in Delaware is all about Apple's attempt to free-ride on the back of Nokia investment in wireless standards, the ITC case filed today is about Apple's actual practice of building its business on Nokia's proprietary innovation, and this is exactly what we want to stop at this point."

Later, Apple then countersued Nokia, claiming the handset maker was infringing on thirteen of its patents.

Apple has also claimed that Nokia’s technology licensing fees exceeded industry standards.

So for now, Nokia is awaiting the Court's procedural documents to move forward in the case. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) said it is planning an important company reorganization of its business units in an effort to return the struggling infrastructure company to growth and profitability.

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Source: Nokia.