Nokia delays N900 until November

Nokia will delay the release of its first Linux-based smartphone, the N900, until November, while it gathers feedback from Maemo developers. The company had previously said the device would be released in October.

"We are working closely with open source developers and for example, at the Maemo Summit in October, we loaned 300 pre-production units to get more feedback from the community," Peter Schneider, Nokia's head of Maemo marketing, said in a statement. "This feedback is extremely important to us and as such we also want to provide the best user experience with the Nokia N900. We expect it to start shipping during November 2009."

Nokia spokesman Joseph Gallo said that the N900's hardware was finalized, and the company was simply waiting to get more feedback from developers as it fine-tuned the device's software. He said there were no other reasons for the delay.

The device remains available for pre-order on Nokia's U.S. website. The phone, could technically work on T-Mobile USA's network. However, neither Nokia nor T-Mobile have indicated that the carrier will sell the device.  

The N900 runs on Maemo 5 software and will have a 3G cellular connection (WCDMA and HSPA at 900/1700/2100 MHz), a WVGA touchscreen display and a Qwerty keyboard. The phone will run on a ARM Cortex-A8 processor, feature up to 1 GB of application memory and include a OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration. Nokia has also boasted the device will be able to perform "PC-like" multitasking.

For more:
- see this Reuters article [1]
- see this Brighthand article [2]
- see this Mameo.org post [3]

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Nokia clarifies: N900 can be customized [4]
Nokia will not customize the N900 for carriers [5]
Nokia may make more acquisitions in services push [6]
Nokia N900 goes on pre-order in U.S. [7]
Nokia debuts N900, first Linux smartphone [8]