Symbian 3 has been earmarked for phones targeted at budget-conscious consumers while its high-end devices expected later this year will be based on MeeGo -- a new mobile platform it is building in cooperation with Intel.
Nokia hopes the Symbian 3 platform will restore its market share which has been routed due to mass adoption of Apple's iPhone, enterprise loyalty to RIM's BlackBerry and a surge of interest in devices based on Google's Android platform.
Nokia Australia chief Emile Baak said the company's smartphone strategy would be to avoid a one-size for all approach.
"The Symbian 3 platform coincides with the bringing to market the beautiful N8 smartphone and it basically marks an era where we will aggressively renew our smartphone portfolio," Mr Baak said.
"The new platform marks a new era where we will try to pour diversity into the smartphone market. Not only diversity in our own smartphone range but also in the market.
"We have never, and will never, believe in a smartphone market without diversity. Consumers have a need for different form factors, they have different budgets and so our portfolio should follow that."
The company still faces a challenge catching up to Apple in the mobile application market.
Mr Baak said that Nokia's Ovi store was generating 2.3 million downloads per day but declined to reveal what proportion of them were being delivered to the Australian market.
Nokia's share of Australia's smartphone marker has been hit particularly hard.
Earlier this year, analyst group IDC revealed that the Symbian platform's share of Australia's smartphone market fell 21 per cent to 45 per cent in the three months to March compared with the same quarter last year.
During the same period, the Apple iOS platform's market share surged 30 per cent to reach 40.3 per cent, putting it in striking range to Nokia's lead in the smartphone market this year.
While the company played up the Symbian 3's importance as a smartphone operating system there was a strong focus on the N8's hardware features at its launch today in Sydney.
The launch was themed around photography to play up the handset's imaging credentials which included a 12 megapixel camera and in-phone photo and video editing capabilities.
It also offers a high-definition HDMI TV output and in-built decoder for Dolby 5.1 surround-sound systems.
The device also has digital rights management (DRM) capability. However the company said it had no plans to establish a movie content download service to take advantage of the high-end hardware features.
The touch-based N8 will be available in November through carriers. It can be purchased outright for $749.
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