During an interview with Reuters, Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, has said that the first Symbian^3 phone will come from an Asian manufacturer rather than Nokia, although he declined to say which one. He also indicated that the Symbian^3 code is "nearly ready" and than he expected to have a "very mature" Symbian^4 ready in the first quarter of 2011.

The statement would imply that a Symbian^3 based handset from an Asian manufacturer will go on sale before the Nokia N8. Nokia have not given a more specific date than Q3 for the market availability of the N8. However a best guess would suggest a late August date is the most likely scenario.

So who are the most likely candidates for the 'first' Symbian^3 device? There are several Asian manufacturers that have released a Symbian handset in the recent past: Samsung, Sharp and Fujitsu. There are also a number of Asian mobile device manufacturers who are members of the Symbian Foundation: Compal, Huawei, Foxconn, ZTE and Coolpad.

Symbian^3 is almost complete; it is currently under-going the hardening process. In the Reuters interview Lee Williams noted that, "there is a small share of code which is pending checking by its contributors".