Stephen Elop Promises Symbian Updates & Support Through 2014 [Nokia CEO Says In YouTube Video That Symbian Has Another Three Years Of Support, Says His Personal Phone Is A Nokia Oro]

Posted on TFTS by Kevin Schram on Thursday, 26. May 2011 under: Mobile/Cell Phones

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop sat down with the folks behind the Nokia Conversations blog to answer some questions about the future of the company. The Canadian-born CEO is touring China and Nokia China, and he answered some questions on camera. What we found interesting, is that Nokia is committed to supporting Symbian through 2014.

Nokia’s Symbian operating system was revolutionary in its day for being a quality mobile operating system, and back in the day, I preferred it to Windows Mobile and PalmOS, it’s barely improved since then. Back in February, Nokia announced that they were transitioning to Windows Phone 7 as their main smartphone OS, but the company has confirmed that they’ll continue to support Symbian through 2014.

This support includes customer service, new apps, developer support and updates for Symbian. The developer support is important as a number of Symbian manufacturers who have turned to Android (Sony Ericsson, Samsung) have abandoned their own support for Symbian, leaving Nokia to pick up the slack until it’s time to put Symbian out to pasture.

Elop’s statements about continuing to support Symbian may have been directed at all the developers that work for Nokia. Nokia employs thousands of developers who work on Symbian solely. There were walkouts when news broke that Nokia was switching to Windows Phone 7, so it’s possible that Elop is trying to boost the morale of those employees by promising that they’ll continue to support and work on Symbian (for a few more years, at least).

Elop was then asked which phone he is personally using. The CEO explained that he’s always using a number of phones, including unannounced and unreleased phones from Nokia. He went on to say that he also is often using the phones of competitors to see what they’re doing. This isn’t that uncommon – Alan Mulally, CEO of the Ford Motor Company, said in an interview that he drives a competitors car every day in order to evaluate where they are. Anyway, Elop explained he used all those different phones, but for his trip to China, he explained he’s using a Nokia Oro.

The Oro is a gold-plated special edition of the Nokia C7. You may be familiar with the Nokia C7 as the “Astound” because that’s what T-Mobile is selling it as in the United States.