Symbian^3 OS and a Maemo 6 device coming later this year

According to the Symbian numbering scheme we're at Symbian^1 now, but we won't see ^2 at all - Nokia is jumping straight to Symbian^3. Maemo 6 is coming later this year with at least one new device running it.

Symbian S60 5th edition or Symbian^1 is the OS powering the touch phones from Nokia - from the Nokia N97 flagship to the entry level Nokia 5230. The next version - Symbian^2 - however has been dropped in favor of Symbian^3.

Symbian^3 is expected to come out in the third quarter of 2010. For now it's not clear if older devices will be compatible with the new OS, which will feature multi-touch gestures. We will also be seeing Symbian^4 in late 2010 or early 2011.

Maemo is also getting an update - Maemo 6 is just around the corner (the Nokia N900 runs Maemo 5). Maemo 6 is expected in the second half of 2010, but more importantly there are plans to launch new products based on Maemo 6 - yep, the Nokia N920 could well be on its way. And the use of plural in "products" gives us hope of there being more than one Maemo device coming out this year, despite the rumors to the contrary.

Nokia expects that Symbian devices will overtake S40 devices by 2011 - 55% vs. 35% - and Maemo devices will be 10% of all devices shipped.

Source