Nokia made a number of important announcements today at its Nokia Connection event in Singapore. The Nokia N9, a MeeGo Harmattan smartphone, was announced. Equally important was the announcement that Qt would be at the core of bringing applications to the next billion users, indicating that Nokia intends to bring Qt to its mobile phone devices. Nokia also announced three new Touch and Type Series 40 devices.

Noia N9 - MeeGo Harmattan smartphone

At Nokia Connection, Nokia also unveiled the Nokia N9 smartphone, which is based on MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan. You can read more about the Nokia N9 on our sister site All About MeeGo:

Today in Singapore, at the Nokia Connection event, Nokia announced the Nokia N9. Key hardware features include 3.9 inch touchscreen (854 x 480), penta-band 3G, comprehensive connectivity (WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, USB), up to 64 GB of internal memory and 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar optics. The device is housed in a single piece polycarbonate body with seamless curved glass screen.

The Nokia N9 runs on MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan (MeeGo for Nokia N9). The UI features three home views (events, applications and open apps) with the primary control being a single swipe gesture. The N9, which is a Qt enabled device, will ship with a range of services and applications including Nokia Maps, an HTML enabled (Webkit2) based browser and Skype, Twitter and Facebook integration. Nokia will be announcing a release date and pricing in due course.

Read the full story here.

Qt to bring applications to the next billion users

The most important and far reaching announcement at Nokia Connection was that Qt will be core "to bringing applications to the next billions users". This statement of intent by Nokia indicates that it intends to bring Qt to the Series 40 platform or its future equivalent (the careful wording of the statement could suggest a name change and/or platform evolution is on the way). 

The addition of Qt to the Series 40 software stack will blur the line between smartphones and mobile phones (feature phones). Given that the ability to run third party applications (excluding Java ME) is sometimes used to define what is and is not a smartphone, Series 40, with the addition of Qt, will effectively becomes a smartphone platform. In practise such definitions are unhelpful because they ignore the nuances of the technology context. Nonetheless, Series 40, as an open mobile phone platform, has very significant implications for the future of the mobile industry. 

Marco Argenti, Senior Vice President for Developer and Marketplace, said that Nokia will disclose additional information in due course, but made the announcement today so that developers can see the Qt opportunity in Nokia's mobile phone strategy.
   

New Series 40 devices

Nokia also announced the launch of three new Series 40 devices, the Nokia C2-02, Nokia C2-03 and Nokia C2-06.The Nokia C2-03 is a Touch and Type Dual SIM phone. It has a vertical slider form factor, with 12 key keypad and touchscreen. Dual SIM features include the ability to change SIM cards without having to switch of the phone or remove the battery (Easy Swap) and the ability to save up to 5 SIM cards with unique information (personalisation).  

The Nokia C2-02 is a single SIM version of the C2-03 and the Nokia C2-06 comes in a range of fresh colors with a clean, smooth finish.

Mary McDowell, the head of Nokia's Mobile Phones business unit, said: 

"These phones all offer a web, maps and messaging experience second to none in the market. And with the choice of a touch screen or a keypad, we really have made everything available and easy to use in an affordable phone that comes in both Dual or single SIM options."

The estimated retail price of the Nokia C2-02 and C2-03 is approximately €75 and for the Nokia C2-06 it is €80 . All of the devices are expected to arrive in Q3 2011.