Nokia launches latest iPhone rival, the N97

Nokia jumped into the touchscreen phone game by releasing the N97, a touchscreen phone with a slideout Qwerty keyboard that is similar to the T-Mobile G1.

Nokia unveiled the phone at a company event in Barcelona. The HSDPA phone has WiFi capability, A-GPS and Bluetooth. The phone also has a 5 megapixel camera, "DVD quality" video capture of up to 350 frames-per-second and 32GB of onboard memory (with a microSD slot that makes the phone capable of holding 48GB). The N97 also syncs with Nokia's Ovi web portal and runs with an updated version of Nokia maps, which includes 3D landmarks, and allows users to install widgets on the phones homescreen linking to applications.

Nokia has slated the phone to ship in the first half of 2009, and will retail at $699 before any taxes, rebates or subsidies. The handset maker has not said what U.S. wireless carrier will carry the phone.

Also today, Nokia officially acquired Symbian Limited and said it was given acceptance of more than 99.9 percent of the Symbian shares it did not already own.

For more:
- see this article (sub. req.)
- see this pic
- see this release
- see this release on Symbian
- see this video demo

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