According to a Reuters interview with Symbian’s Executive Director Lee Williams, the first device to launch with Symbian^3 will come from an Asian vendor… not the Finnish company, Nokia. The Nokia N8 is expected in the third quarter of this year, but it looks like eager consumers will be able to preview the new OS from the unnamed vendor before the N8 hits the spotlight.

Lee Williams did not mention which Asian vendor will ship the first S^3 device, but said the code is almost ready. Williams told Reuters, “Symbian 3 is almost completely mature. There is a small share of code which is pending checking by its contributors.”

According to Staska from Unwired View, the 7 Asian companies that can potentially launch the device are Samsung, Fujitsu, Compal, Foxconn, Huawei, Sharp, and ZTE.