Phones (10202)

Nokia and Qualcomm working on new Symbian phone for AT&T

Finnish phone company trying to up its success in US market

30 October 2009 9:24 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Nokia is planning a fresh attack on the US mobile phone market, teaming up with AT&T on a new Symbian phone, a new report suggests.

The device will be developed along with Snapdragon-maker Qualcomm, who has recently joined the Symbian Foundation board.

Although the news that Nokia and Qualcomm had put past differences aside and are planning "advanced mobile devices" was announced officially in February of this year, adding iPhone operator AT&T into the mix is news.

VentureBeat says it "has heard from sources close to Nokia that the company has ... agreed to launch a phone in the US market with AT&T using a Qualcomm chip".

Back in Feb, Nokia and Qualcomm said the Symbian device they were teaming up on would offer "cutting-edge processing performance and ubiquitous mobile broadband capabilities".

Nokia has a low market share in America of around 5%, a big difference from its 38% share globally, and was caught on film recently trying to persuade consumers to opt for unlocked Nokia handsets in an attempt to up its US success.