A recent FCC filing suggests that the Symbian^3-powered Nokia C7 touchscreen slate will be sold by T-Mobile, evidenced by mentions of the carrier in the accompanying user manual. First rumored as coming to Magenta under the name Tiger, the appearance of this 3.5-inch, nHD handset may finally answer the question of why the Nokia Nuron 2 — a restyled C5-03 — was abruptly cancelled: perhaps it was simply to make room for higher-end hardware. The manual also has a section on WiFi calling, meaning that the C7 may join a select group of Android handsets in T-Mobile’s latest VoiP push.
With Nokia having just made a very public commitment to Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 — at the rumored cost of $1 billion to Redmond — the future of Symbian is very much up in the air, despite Nokia’s argument that it will remain an entry-level platform in the near term. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how the C7 slots into T-Mobile’s lineup pricewise: is it a $100+ smartphone or a near-free feature phone?
