All around the world, the Symbian-loving chunk of the population is waiting on the edge of their seats for Symbian^4 (pronounced “Symbian Four”). Intended as a complete overhaul from Symbian past, it could very well slingshot the visibly aged Operating System into modern times.

The first videos of Symbian^4 have just been released for public consumption, and we can’t help but notice that they seem very.. uninspired. Actually, perhaps that’s inaccurate. They’re very inspired. Directly inspired. By the competition.

I’m never one to shout that such-and-such handset is a clone of another, but the influences here are undeniable. The widget screen/mechanism is similar to that of Symbian^3, but nearly identical to Android’s. The photo screen looks damn close to the iPhone’s, though they did come up with a fairly slick way of switching from photo to photo.

It’s certainly a big step up for Symbian — it’s just less revolution, and more emulation. Hopefully they’ve got some tricks up their sleeves planned for the next year of development.

Via FierceWireless