The first updates to current Symbian phones will appear in the first half of next year, Nokia said today.

At the Symbian Exchange and Exposition in Amsterdam, the handset manufacturer--which said yesterday that it was bringing development of Symbian back in-house--said the first updates would include the addition of split-screen text entry, a Qwerty keyboard that works when the phone is in portrait mode, integrated Swype input, and a new browser.

New Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop revealed in October that there would no longer be a sharp break between Symbian^3--the version found in handsets including the N8 and C7--and what was to be the upcoming Symbian^4. Instead, Symbian^4 has been scrapped and features that were due to be released in that version will be gradually added to the current handset range, so as to improve the user experience.

More: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20022225-94.html