Despite decisions to the contrary made as part of the recently announced collaboration between Nokia and Microsoft, Symbian OS still seems to be very much in the game. There were reports that Nokia is working on Symbian^4, but the company seems to be working on an update of Symbian^3 instead.
A glimpse of the new Symbian^3 user interface was presented by Nokia at the Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona. The photo status icons will now be displayed in a straight line, whereas earlier they used to float around, unrestrained, on the screen. This should free more screen space without compromising utility.
At the bottom of the screen, the interface buttons have been redesigned, again to increase screen space. Overall, people will have an easier time customising their phone. The new interface will likely be used on Nokia N8, and the usual information about signal, battery, time and operator will now be moved to a small bar.
At Mobile World Congress 2011 Nokia had mentioned that the new user interface will improve hardware performance.
The placement of widget icons is more flexible than before, and these are not imprisoned by conventional looks. The improvements are a work in progress, but are in the right direction. However, all this is happening when we know for sure that Symbian has to finally give way to Windows Phone, but there are a large number of Symbian users, and products for the OS are still being rolled out.
Meanwhile, Nokia conducted a poll on its official blog in which about 22 per cent users asked for a fresh user interface (which shows that the direction the company is taking with the new UI is right), and close to 13 per cent users said they are gaming enthusiasts.
There is a possibility that some time in the future you will be able to take Xbox along with you in your Nokia handset. Since most people use Windows on their home and office PCs, they would likely appreciate being able to easily sync data to their Nokia smartphone.