Nokia Wants to Revolutionize the Mobile UI in 2011

By Mashable/Mobile

Nokia plans to embrace a completely new approach to the mobile UI, and it plans to launch first devices based on the new approach with Meego in 2011, said Director of Design Strategy at Nokia Marko Ahtisaari at LeWeb conference in Paris today.
Interestingly enough, Ahtisaari didn’t shy from praising Nokia’s competitors, namely Apple, calling the iPhone interface with one button “beautifully elegant” and “simple to learn.” However, other approaches are possible, he said, and it’s “too early” for the old idea of a smartphone – the one with a physical keyboard – to die out.
He didn’t give any details about the upcoming Meego-based smartphones, saying (quite cryptically) that he wants to give phone users a ‘head up’ experience again.
Speaking about the success of Nokia’s app store, Ahtisaari said that there are currently 3.5 million app downloads a day in the Ovi store. He also mentioned that 1.3 billion people use Nokia handsets every day.
During the Q&A session, Ahtisaari also weighed in on Android. Asked whether we’ll ever see an Android-based Nokia, Ahtisaari didn’t completely rule out the possibility, but the answer was still no. “We’re interested in platforms where we can create value, and from the point of view of the device manufacturer, Android doesn’t do that right now,” he said.