Nokia stops selling Symbian-based devices in U.S.

PanARMENIAN.Net - Symbian-based devices will no longer be sold in North America.

This comes on the heels of the news that the MeeGo-based Nokia N9, considered to be its most powerful and user-friendly phone to date, will also not be available in the United States.

There was really no reason for Nokia to keep Symbian around in North America. It had never reached any type of critical market or mind share and devices were rare on the shelves of the four major U.S. carriers. Yet, with Nokia prepping for a large scale launch of Windows Phone 7, there is no room left in the North American market for Symbian or MeeGo, according to ReadWriteWeb.

Chris Weber, the president of Nokia's U.S. subsidiary, said that once Windows Phone comes out "we will essentially be out of the Symbian business, the S40 business, etc."

Nokia's market strategy has Microsoft written all over it. CEO Stephen Elop was a former Microsoft executive, as was Weber. The idea is to start in the U.S. and then make devices available worldwide.

Nokia also plans its biggest marketing campaign ever for Windows Phone. Nokia's Windows Phones are expected to come out later this year integrated with "Mango," the next development of the platform.