Looks like 2008 will be the battleground for touch screen-enabled devices as Nokia demonstrated via video their new touch user interface S60 OS for smartphones at the Symbian Smartphone Show. It’s expected to support both touch and stylus input methods, and offers tactile feedback for better user experience. Similar to the iPhone, it will incorporate motion, light and orientation sensors so that it will automatically adjust its settings accordingly. What’s good about this new UI, which will be made available in 2008 devices, is that all existing S60 3^rd edition software will be compatible as well as support for Flash Lite 3 for a complete internet experience. Likewise, tools will be made available for developers so that they can tweak their applications to further take advantage of this new UI.

Currently, aside from Nokia handsets, Samsung also makes use of the S60 platform. While this technology is still currently in the development phase, it will be a great digital face-off come 2008 when it goes head-to-head with the much earlier released touch UI from Apple. By then, Apple would have probably improved on their OS, but Nokia has the edge on the number of devices that supports theirs. Here’s another great reason to look forward to 2008!