Nokia just announced two new versions of its Symbian platform at the Developer Day in Mexico, codenamed Carla and Donna. Don’t be confused by the names – after Symbian^3, Nokia chose to give each new revision a female name, going in alphabetical order. We already have Anna and Belle, and both received pretty warm reception. Even though Nokia has already embraced Windows Phone as the new operating system for its smartphones, it won’t stop supporting Symbian until 2016. However, not all devices will get the two new updates – read on to see whether yours does.

Carla will likely be released early 2013, but only for smartphones that have a 1 Ghz processor or higher. This means all Symbian^3 and Anna handsets will not be getting the updates, including popular models like the N8, C7 and E7. There is no complete list of the new features, but we already new Carla will pack a redesigned Web browser, greatly improved NFC features, Dolby Surround sound and new widgets.

Donna will probably appear a year after Carla, and it will only support dual-core processors. Currently there are no Symbian handsets with dual-core processors, so by revealing Donna Nokia also confirmed that Symbian smartphones will eventually get dual-core chips. By that time, however, quad-cores will probably be the norm.

Belle wasn’t forgotten either. With a lot of handsets still in the line for it, the release timetable has been clarified. Nokia 500, X7 and E6 will be updated this year, but the original Symbian^3 devices will have to wait until 2012.

Apparently Nokia 603 deals – it’s one of the devices that have Belle from the factory.

Symbian is still here, but is restricted to the lower-range models. However, Belle has proved that it still has some potential, so who knows, maybe Nokia will decide to support it beyond 2016.

Source – GSMArena