FINNISH PHONE MAKER Nokia's N9 smartphone prototype has been spotted in China and it is likely to be the first smartphone to run the outfit's own Meego OS. But it is going face actual competition from the upcoming Blackberry Bold and HTC Desire smartphones, so it is going to must be nice to gain much traction.
Regrettably no specifications for the Nokia N9 have been leaked, only some images of the device to tease us at the Chinese language site Baidu.
Overall, the device looks like it is going to be giant, with a screen size comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S.
Nokia looks like it is going to put a slide-out Qwerty keyboard on the N9 and the first impression of it is that looks a lot like a miniaturised Macbook.
Android devices in particular have been flying off the shelves with the OS experiencing an astonishing growth of 561 percent year-on-year. Shipments of devices walking the Google OS are expected to top 55 million this year.
The Meego OS is likely to be key to the success or failure of the N9 and Nokia has all but pinned its hopes on the OS for the high finish market. Not much has been seen of the user interface, and Nokia is going to must work hard to attract users who have grown accustomed to smartphones walking Android or IOS4.
Still, Nokia has an established user base that will welcome its devices. Users at the Nokia Weblog appear enthusiastic to get their hands on this device, based on its looks alone.
"A very lovely device indeed. Let's hope that the OS will have the same value," wrote user.
"This is a piece of beauty. Prepared to see some MeeGo mobile OS live," noted another.
Reports recommend that the N9 could hit the shelves before the finish of the year. Thinking about that Nokia's upcoming N8 has been pushed back to October, this seems odd, as it would mean that Nokia will fundamentally be competing with itself.
However, the N8 will run the Symbian OS while the N9 will run Meego, so Nokia might be able to differentiate the devices based on their operating systems alone.
Nokia's N8 & N9 smartphones are going to must face some stiff competition this year, though.
New Blackberry & HTC handsets are expected to hit the market as early as October, as manufacturers scramble to release fresh devices well ahead of the Christmas shopping season.
The Blackberry Bold R020 will be the successor to the Research in Motion (RIM) current business favourite, the Blackberry Bold 9700. Unsurprisingly, the phone will retain the conventional Blackberry look & feature a two.4-inch LCD screen with 480x360 resolution.
Key upgrades will include the Blackberry 6 OS, 512MB of RAM as well as a beefed up 5-megapixel camera, according to a leaked presentation.
The Blackberry R020 aims to pick up where the Bold 9700 left off & will merge "a ideal balance of speed, power & style", according to RIM.
Meanwhile, the HTC Desire HD & Desire Z have shown up briefly on the retail web-site mobiles.co.uk, but appear to have been taken down.
The specification list for the Desire HD confirms earlier leaked details, & it includes Android two.2 Froyo, a 1GHz processor, an 8 megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording capabilities & 4GB of internal memory. It is also expected to have a four.3-inch capacitive touchscreen.
There's no specifications listed for the Desire Z, but the description claims that the handset will come with a vivid three.7-inch touchscreen display as well as a slide out full Qwerty keyboard, making it ideal for browsing the world wide web & messaging.
The handset will run Android two.1 & be powered by a 1GHz processor, according to the retailer.
HTC would not confirm details, saying that it does not comment on rumours & speculation.
However, it does appear that Nokia's N8 & N9 smartphones will have some actual competition from RIM & HTC this Autumn & in the runup to Christmas.
