Nokia to intro E7 next week in bid to save smartphones

Nokia plans for its in-house Nokia World expo should include its first mainstream Eseries touchscreen phone, leaks revealed on Monday. The E7, a touchscreen QWERTY model, is said by Reuters to be at the September 14 show. The tips did not provide more details, but it may be a Symbian^3 slider somewhat reminiscent of the MeeGo-usingN9.

The London event should also be used to confirm that the N8 is finally shipping, seven months after it was first unveiled. Other new smartphones are expected to come along, although which ones weren't mentioned.

Much is riding on the successes of the E7 and N8, as Nokia is hoping to modernize its rapidly aging smartphone line. Its share is collapsing both in smartphones and the wider cellphone arena as Apple's iPhone and Google Android platform have been taking away customers. Even today, most Nokia smartphones do not use touch and are running a modified version of Symbian S60 only somewhat adjusted for finger input. The company has also had a history of being unable to ship phones near their unveiling dates and often delivers them half a year later, once their features have already been introduced by someone else.

MeeGo and Symbian^3 will give Nokia multi-touch more than three years after Apple first introduced it to a phone. Both should also provide much more recent web browser technology and will smooth out many of the overly complex interface elements that have held back S60.

[source:engadget]