Nokia may swap Symbian for Maemo at the high end

The Nokia N900 runs Maemo rather than Symbian

Nokia is set to drop Symbian in favour of its own Maemo platform on its N-Series devices, according to reports. However, the phone giant has declined to confirm the plans, and said instead that it remains firmly committed to Symbian.

The move, disclosed by Nokia at a meeting of Maemo enthusiasts in London, according to various online sources, will see all N-Series devices running Maemo instead of Symbian by 2012.

When contacted by V3.co.uk for further details, Nokia would neither confirm nor deny the plans.

"While it is our policy not to disclose details of our product roadmap, we'd like to explicitly communicate that we remain firmly committed to Symbian as our smartphone platform of choice," the firm said in a statement.

"Any speculation on our 2012 roadmap, including operating systems and product branding, are completely premature."

Maemo, which is Linux-based, features in Nokia's recently released N900 device. Perhaps significantly, this model features standard cellular phone capabilities while its predecessors were internet tablet devices with Wi-Fi for browsing the web.

Other N-Series models, such as the N97, continue to use Symbian, but with Nokia's S60 user interface.

Nokia has previously been reported as considering Maemo its platform of choice for high-end devices, with the Symbian OS relegated to mainstream and low-end handsets, and the company's statement possibly hints at this split.

"As we have stated earlier, Nokia has multiple platforms to serve different purposes and address different markets. Symbian is more successful than ever in bringing smartphones to the masses," the firm said.

"Maemo is our software of choice for devices based on technology that you’d typically find inside a desktop computer. It delivers a different user experience and enables us to widen the market we can address."