Nokia is about to launch the next version of Symbian - Symbian Belle - according to a teaser which the company has inadvertently confirmed on its Facebook fan page.

The teaser which simply says: “It’s almost time to try something new” has a countdown timer with (at time of writing) 46 hours 56 minutes and 30 seconds to go. 

That end time gives us a Wednesday 24 August launch, the “something new” announcement presumably set for 1:45pm GMT.

Teasing and tantalizing stuff, had it not been for the fact that whoever build the Flash animation on the Facebook page initially called the animation “Belle teaser” later changing it to just teaser.

So with that cat out of the bag, what is Symbian Belle likely to bring us?

According to leaked videos of Belle, already floating around the Internet, the new update will bring Android-style drop down notifications. Other expected features are a Task Switcher and the ability to quickly hop between applications or close them down. There is also the promise of a new App Store, with Nokia finally ditching the Ovi branding.  

Add that to unconfirmed rumours that the new announcement and update to Symbian Belle will bring with it three new handsets - the Cindy (Nokia 600), Zeta (Nokia 700), and Helen (Nokia 701) and Nokia fans not waiting for Windows Phone 7 should start to get excited. 

All the new smartphones will, supposedly, be powered by a 1GHz processor with the Zeta sporting a 3.2-inch AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel camera and NFC. The Nokia 701 Helen will sport an 8-megapixel camera and is likely to be the successor of the Nokia C7.

Symbian Belle first appeared in a leaked video running on a Nokia N8:

Nokia wasn't available for comment at time of writing.