Nokia Belle OS No Longer Branded as Symbian

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Nokia is rebranding its latest non Windows Phone smartphone offering. Previously called Symbian Belle, the upcoming mobile OS update will now be simply called Nokia Belle.

Nokia made a big, bold move when it announced its switch to the Windows Phone 7 platform. But even so, the company retained its Symbian offerings, which it directed toward the lower- and mid-range markets, with some premium products still running Symbian. With its latest Symbian Belle release, though, the Finnish company will no longer use the Symbian name in marketing its smartphones.

Instead Nokia will call the OS Nokia Belle. In an announcement via Nokia Conversations, Adam Fraser gave a few insights into the renaming, although Nokia has not explained fully why it dropped the Symbian name altogether.

We are still using Symbian Belle with some audiences like developers but now we also have the flexibility of using Nokia Belle when referring to our greatest and latest Symbian software update. We are really looking forward to making Belle available to people as it will truly bring a new experience to everybody.

Nokia will retain the Symbian nomenclature within its developer ecosystem, given that it’s still a Symbian platform, after all. But when referring to the platform in the public, it will simply be Nokia Belle or even just Belle.

Nokia says Belle will be a big upgrade, particularly in terms of user experience. As such, Nokia says this explains the delay of release from Q4 2011 to January 2012, then finally Febraury.

The home screens will be increased from three to six, and with more functional home-screen widgets, too. For instance, the email widget will now provide more message details at a glance. Belle is already out on the Nokia 701, 700 and 600 smartphones meant for the Chinese Market, and will arrive on the Nokia 500, N8n E7, E6, X7, C6-01, C7 and the Nokia Oro this coming February.