Yes, we know that Nokia has partnered with Microsoft to develop smartphones for Windows Phone 7 platform, but these new phones won’t arrive until next year. And what is Nokia to do with their rapidly shrinking market share of mobile phone in the US and worldwide? Well, they continue to nurse their Symbian platforms.

Yes, Symbian isn’t totally out of the window, as Nokia has just launched a new C7 smartphone using the Symbian^3 operating system, with T-Mobile USA (which has since been bought by AT&T Inc. from Deutsche Telekom AG for $39 billion).

Nokia recently cancelled their X7 smartphone for the US market, which ran its Symbian software, after not receiving enough marketing and subsidies support from its intended carrier, AT&T Inc. Nokia launched its higher end N8 late last year without carrier support in the U.S., hindering its chances of finding many users.

Nokia started shipping the C7 world-wide in October at an estimated €335, or $475, before taxes and subsidies. During Nokia’s fourth-quarter analyst call, Mr. Elop mentioned the C7 as one of a number of new Symbian launches that helped contribute to the over five million new devices it shipped in the quarter.