Nokia N97 Announcement

Yesterday morning the Internet was abuzz with news of Nokia's latest announced N-series device, the Nokia N97.

Sporting a haptic 3.5 inch (360 x 640 resolution) touchscreen and running S60 5th edition, the N97 echos similarity to Nokia's just released 5800 XpressMusic. But adds a slide out QWERTY keyboard. Being a N-series it also adds TV-out, uPnP, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 5MP autofocus Carl Zeiss optics camera with 640x480 30FPS MPEG4 video capture.

Quick facts:
Name: Nokia N97-1
Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 WCDMA 900/1900/2100
Weight: 150 g
Dimensions: 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm
Battery: BP-4L 3.7V 1500 mAh
Battery life (stand by): 430 hours (GSM), 400 hours (WCDMA)
Battery life (talk): 400 minutes (GSM), 320 (WCDMA)
Source: Nokia

Reaction on the Internet to the N97 has been generally positive. Most people feel this is a worthy phone to fight Apple's iPhone, the form factor resembles a lot like HTC and Samsung's latest touch screen phones, and Nokia has been slow to adopt this form factor.

I feel Nokia took too long to announce a phone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. It would've been a very competitive phone if this was released a year ago. Apple's App Store and the stability of the iPhone 3G variant will make adoption of the N97 a challenge in North America. However, for the rest of the world, where Nokia holds a dominating marketshare, the N97 is going to sell very well with its unique form factor in Nokia's line up. This is a critical and necessary phone for filling a void in Nokia's portfolio and looks to have what everyone wants in a phone. A North American variant of the N97 with 850/1900 HSDPA 3G has not been announced which is necessary for Canadian Rogers or US AT&T to adopt the phone. I'm still hoping a well executed mass produced QWERTY slider/bar E75 is released to help Nokia improve its marketshare in North America.