Nokia re-affirms its commitment to Symbian, sort of

Nokia has always been solid on its dedication to the Symbian platform, but a report from an N900 event yesterday cast some doubt on Symbian's future in certain branches of Nokia's product line, specifically the high-end N-series of smartphones.

I reached out to Nokia to find out exactly what is going on with Maemo and Symbian in the N-series, and received equal parts affirmation and denial.

Nokia's response was nowhere near as strong as the "outright denial" given to the short-lived rumor of an Android-based Nokia device last July, and instead served to paint a picture that's not so black and white.

Nokia North America's Director of Communications Laurie Armstrong told Betanews today, "Any speculation on our 2012 roadmap -- including operating systems and product branding -- are completely speculation."

But Armstrong went on to say that Maemo will have its own place.

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