Exclusive Nokia is said to be hastening the demise of its legacy Symbian platform, cancelling the development of all but one new Symbian-based device. Although Nokia Belle updates will continue to ship to existing customers, only one new model – a successor to the N8 high-end camera phone – will reach the market, the Register understands.

So if the fat lady isn’t yet singing for Symbian, she has taken a deep breath.

Nokia said last February, when it announced a switch to Windows Phone, that it expected to sell 150 million more Symbian phones before the transition to WP was complete. Last month Nokia admitted sales of Symbian devices were falling faster than it expected. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop blamed this on changing market conditions, specifically the demand for lower cost smartphones. “We now believe that we will sell fewer Symbian devices than we previously anticipated,” said Elop.

The move has major ramifications for Nokia partners. Accenture acquired 3,000 Symbian developers from Nokia last summer, after the company made Windows its strategic smartphone platform. Many of those may not now be required.

Key silicon partner ST Ericsson already hinted at the news when giving investors guidance last week. ST Ericsson said that a “very significant decline” in net sales this quarter was to be expected was due in part to the “reduction, in the short term, of new product sales with one of our largest customers."

Quite what Nokia's Professor of Karma makes of this, we can only guess.

Further details are most welcome – just click below and tell me. ®

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