Handset market updates

We've talked a lot about smartphones, specifically touchscreen smartphones, in the past months. The Apple iPhone 3G taking over the market! The long-awaited Google Android-powered G1 changing the way users interact with their phones! The Blackberry Storm and its clickable touchscreen! Now we have our eyes on Nokia. The company just announced that their N97 will be released in the first half of 2009.

A quick summary of the N97's features: a big, durable touch screen, 5 megapixel camera, 32 gb built-in memory, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, GPS, high-speed Internet, flash video, customizable widgets, and much-hyped social location capabilities. It seems to have it all—at least enough to make it competitive with the other top players in the upper range of smartphones.

Jonas Geust, vice president of Nokia's devices unit told Reuters the other day, "This is really the start of the new N-series ... really kicking off the next wave." It's clear that Nokia is betting on the N97 to keep the company strong in 2009.

It will be released in Europe and Asia in the first half of 2009 for 550 euro, and afterwards in the U.S. While Europe has been a stronghold for Nokia, the U.S. is a tougher market for the company—Apple and Blackberry handsets are the dominant players in the high-end bracket there. At the moment, it is hard to find a U.S. network operator that carries and subsidises the N-series, making them more expensive in the U.S. It's also not clear whether it will be compatible with U.S. 3G networks.

Consumers and mobile phones wholesale traders in Europe and Asia are sure to be eagerly awaiting the N97—though a 6-month wait may cause that excitement to wane by the time the phone comes out. What do you think? Will the N97 help Nokia keep a hold on its share of the market?

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