Nokia last night confirmed reports it is to launch a new Symbian device in the US via an exclusive deal with T-Mobile, a move designed to strengthen its limited presence in the North American market and build on its recent promise to ship 150 million more Symbian devices.
Dubbed the Nokia Astound, the new device appears to be a tweaked C7, featuring the same 3.5-inch AMOLED display, 8 megapixel camera, and 720p HD video capture as the original announced last year.
The only obvious differences are the T-Mobile branding along the bottom chin and support for the updated Symbian^3.1, which has features including portrait QWERTY input and a refreshed browser.
T-Mobile will be offering Wi-Fi calling as well as unrestricted video calling over Qik thanks to the front-facing camera. Nokia has called it “an affordable smartphone,” promising availability beginning 6 April for US$79.99 after a US$50 mail-in rebate on contract.
Nokia’s move comes as it recently promised to commit to “the long-tail of Symbian as long as it gives us profitable margin.” The world’s largest handset vendor has already pledged to move to Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS as its “primary smartphone platform,” but that strategy will take until 2013 to come to full fruition and in the meantime Nokia has said it intends to sell 150 million more Symbian phones during the transition phase.
Nokia has an installed user base of around 200 million Symbian phones worldwide. The company plans to update Symbian's user interface this year. Meanwhile the launch of the Astound will aim to boost its credentials in the US market.
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