We may live in a Windows Mobile world, but over in Europe there's another smartphone OS of some note. It's called Symbian, and it's backed by Nokia. Symbian phones dominate the smartphone scene over there, though here in the US, the Symbian presence usually consists of one best-selling Nokia phone plus a bunch of poorly marketed (but much loved) fringe devices.

That best-selling Nokia phone is right now the Nokia 6682; it used to be the Nokia 6620, and before that the Nokia 6600. Other Symbian phones (barely) on the US market include the Sony Ericsson P910 and the Nokia N90.

So which kind of phone will the Nokia 9300 Communicator be? I vote for fringe, even though it's the first US device to include Blackberry Connect, software that lets it hook up to Blackberry e-mail systems. That could help feed the hunger of Blackberry users looking for a more flexible smartphone with a broader office suite and better multimedia capabilities. The 9300's screen is gorgeous, its Web browser is top notch, and there are thousands of third-party apps out there for Symbian phones.

But the 9300 has problems: it felt sluggish to me, and it lacks Wi-Fi and high speed 3G networks. More importantly, Nokia and US carriers have an absolutely awful history of marketing the capabilities of Symbian smartphones in the US, leaving most consumers to go with more familiar devices like the Blackberry 8700c and Cingular 8125. I don't get much faith from the tortured history of the 9300: I first tested it in May, Cingular announced it in September, and I only realized it was on sale when Ryan at Engadget blogged it today. That's a pretty hideously long time to market.

I'll see more Blackberry Connect gadgets at CTIA, the big trade show next week. That's really good news for mobile e-mail users looking for quality push e-mail in a range of devices. But it'll take some serious consumer education, and a real commitment from Nokia and Cingular, for US folks to see the strengths of the Nokia 9300.