Nokia’s operating system arm, S60, has lifted the lid on its plans to take on Apple’s iPhone. Armed with a bucketful of touch and motion-sensitive goodies, the next generation of the S60 operating system promises to be a stunner.

Nokia’s operating system arm, S60, has lifted the lid on its plans to take on Apple’s iPhone. Armed with a bucketful of touch and motion-sensitive goodies, the next generation of the S60 operating system promises to be a stunner.

The most exciting bit is to see finger and thumb sensitive screens with tactile feedback. This means you won’t need to look at the screen to know you’ve pushed a button, a minor drawback of iPhone. Other goodies include the ability to flip the phone to deactivate alarms, tap the phone to switch something off and even the potential for the screen to be sensitive to light.

The boon for S60 though is that the system will be backward compatible, and it’ll be super easy for third party developers to integrate touch and motion sensitivity into their apps. Unlike Apple, which won’t allow third party apps, the rate of innovation should be rapid.

We’re expecting to see products hit the shelves in 2008, probably the second half. S60 wouldn’t comment on when we’ll get full details of the next-gen system, most likely to be named S60 series 5.