Touch-screen of S60 Nokia

A touch-screen version of Nokia popular S60 smartphone software would be ready in 2008. Nokia unveiled the latest updates to its S60 operating system, including the ability to work with touch screen devices.

S60 will be compatible with several different combinations of touch screen devices, such as touch and regular keypad, touch and QWERTY keyboard, and full touch screen interfaces. Current S60 3rd Edition applications will work seamlessly on touch screen devices without any modifications.

The new touch user interface will have support for tactile feedback, which means that users will get a pulse when tapping on the display. It will also support stylus input and have the ability to silence the phone when receiving a call just by putting the device face down.

"The touch user interface in S60 smartphone software offers licensees the opportunity to develop devices with a variety of input methods," Nokia said in a statement.

Touch screens, which enable cellphone makers to hide numeric keypads, have made headlines around the world this year due to the launch of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone handset. Nokia is planning to release these technologies to all S60 device manufacturers starting next year, 2008.