The new Nokia Lumia 900 is reportedly selling very well in the US, and currently sits comfortably in the No. 1 spot on Amazon’s “Cell Phones With Service Plans” category.

But Windows Phone 7.5 isn’t getting all the fun, as Nokia has revealed that native Microsoft Office Mobile apps are now available for its Symbian Belle devices.

Wait, Symbian?

Yes, the “burning platform” – as Nokia CEO Stephen Elop so eloquently described – is indeed getting a mobile productivity boost, and the Nokia 603, 700, 701, C6-01, C7, E7, X7, and Oro will all be getting Microsoft Office Mobile suite through an upcoming software update. …

Nokia Singapore is rolling out the Belle version of its Symbian operating system for 12- to 18-month old phones like the N8 and E7 from today, showing that it has not forgotten users who have yet to abandon the “burning platform“.

Recently unveiled on new models like the N700, Belle comes with improvements like bigger live widgets and promises a smoother, faster interface than the rather outdated experience on previous Symbian editions. …

Nokia E6 (left) and X7 (right)

Here’s the funny thing about Nokia phones: Pictures never do them justice. You can’t know how a Nokia phone really feels in real life just by looking at photos, and this sentiment is best exemplified in the Finnish mobile giant’s newly announced phones, the E6 and X7. Both phones will be launched with the latest version of Symbian, which features of slew of improvements that could possibly bring it up to par with other current smartphone platforms.

Techgoondu had the chance to give these two babies a quick hands-on and came away impressed. Put simply, these are Nokia’s best phones yet, and it’s not an overstatement to claim that they are the Symbian phones we’ve all been waiting for.

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Having been in the spotlight these past two weeks for getting in bed with Microsoft, Nokia faced some hard questions on its product roadmap yesterday in Singapore, where it launched a business smartphone that sported the now-unfavoured Symbian operating system.

Just how would Nokia position the new E7, now that newer Windows Phone devices would be out in the coming months? Would the software onboard be updated over time? Just how good is the phone itself? …

In the few hours after technology behemoths Microsoft and Nokia unveiled one of the most dramatic partnerships in years to take on rivals Google and Apple, terms like MicroKia, Noksoft and NoWin have quickly become popular sarcastic phrases for tech pundits predicting a doomed marriage.

As if the two new allies needed reminding, the jokes are a measure of how uncertain the future is for two companies playing catchup in the smartphone game, despite a deal that seems, on paper, to be joining their still considerable powers to crawl back their rivals’ leads. …

It’s no surprise to market watchers, tech pundits or even just the average Joe that Nokia has been languishing behind competitors in recent years. Just ask the average Singaporean which phone they own and chances are that it is not going to be a Nokia one.

Falls in global market share, threats by Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s to cut Nokia’s credit ratings on fear of their uncompetitiveness, and bad execution of good ideas all contribute to Nokia falling off the cliff.

But it is surprising to hear Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop berate and chastise Nokia’s attitude in a brutally honest and candid internal memo. Few corporations would be so directly straightforward, unless the situation is dire.

Stephen likened Nokia to be a “burning platform”. The question is do you have the courage to jump (and possibly survive) or get immolated in a blaze they “poured their own gasoline” on? A riveting read.

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Firstly, a big thank you to all the fans and supporters of our scrappy little blog here.

Thanks to all the attendees who took the time and effort to come down to Techgoondu’s first indepedent and wireless event UNWIRED last Thursday 27 May at the Singapore Management University.

Time for a little shameless plug here.

Organised by chief goondu Alfred Siew, the event was a success due to the excellent crowd and overall quality of speakers. Registered attendees numbered over a hundred-odd, and there were lots of friends from both media and PR in attendance. For a first-time event that no one had heard of a month and a half back, it certainly met and exceeded some of our attendees’ expectations.

Said Daniel Goh, PR and media manager at Samsung Asia, and owner of the excellent start-up blog YoungUpstarts: “I’m quite surprised with the crowd. They actually asked a lot of questions!”

There were so many questions being asked that time overran on many of the sessions on that day.

Alf will probably add on a blog post on this baby of his, but I thought I would do a quick wrap-up of the “Mobile applications: the future driver of wireless technologies?” panel that I moderated.

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The Nokia E72, the followup to last year’s E71 sleeper hit, has gone on sale here for S$750 (without any subscription contract).

Featuring the same large screen + Qwerty keyboard layout in a skinny frame, this will likely be a hit with the Blackberry crowd as well as existing E71 users looking to upgrade to a new phone that’s sans touch-screen .

What we like most: 10.2Mbps 3.5G downloads – great for downloading those huge attachments or when surfing the Net for football scores, of course. Other useful features: an optical navi key, as well as a decent 5-meg camera (not bad for a “business” phone).

Of course, going with Nokia means you have to live with the Symbian OS, which is a plus to some but minus to others (mostly Android fans like me).

Still, outside of Blackberry, there were not many phones that did mobile messaging better than the original E71 last year. The E72, with some new components under the hood, should appeal to the same group of heavy messaging users.

It was first called the Idou, when unveiled earlier this year at the 3GSM Mobile World Congress cellphone show. Then came the name change to Satio, and the world-beating specs: 12-meg Cybershot camera, 3.5-inch screen and a new Symbian S60 OS with touch UI.

So, after such a long wait, how does this much-touted flagship smartphone from Sony Ericsson feel in the hand? After testing it for a week, I’d say it’s a mixed bag. So much of the Satio is so desirable – the beautiful screen, for one; yet, much of this same shiny handset is also annoying. …