Nokia touchscreen phone by Dec

Setting at rest speculations, cell phone major Nokia has confirmed it will launch a full touchscreen handset by the end of this year.

"We have been working on the Series 60 platform for touchscreen user interface and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end," Nokia Spokesperson, told reporters.

The Nokia full touchscreen phone, codenamed the 'Tube' was also featured in the latest Batman movie "The Dark Knight" and will be Nokia's second full touchscreen device, the first of which was launched in 2003 but was later discontinued.

The past year has seen cellphone majors such as Samsung and LG debuting their full touchscreen mobile phones in the market after the success of the Apple iPhone.

It is widely anticipated that Research in Motion (RIM) -- the makers of Blackberry -- are also working on a full touchscreen phone, codenamed 'Blackberry Thunder'.

Nokia first unveiled the touchscreen S60 interface last October.

"The new software would allow licensees to develop devices with a variety of input methods, such as touchscreen with traditional keypad, QWERTY keyboard, or standalone touchscreen, supporting both finger or stylus optimised input," a Nokia statement had then stated.

Mobile phone maker Symbian Ltd, in which Nokia held a majority stake till a few months ago, has developed the S60 platform.

The Finnish giant announced the acquisition of the remaining 52 per cent stake in Symbian in June this year from Sony Ericsson, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens.

"With the acquisition of Symbian, we will be able to offer our customers more innovative products and the latest technology," Kishore said.

On being asked about the Apple's OS X, the fastest growing mobile operating system, Kishore said, "Symbian is the largest mobile phone software developer globally and it is up to our customers to decide how popular and accepted our software is."

OS X recently displaced Microsoft Windows for mobiles as the number three mobile phone operating system after Symbian and Blackberry.

Google, which some time back announced the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), is also working on a mobile OS -- Android, based on the Linux platform.