Nokia N97 hitting 75 countries in June (updated)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 2nd 2009 2:50AM
posted Jun 2nd 2009 2:50AM
If you had any doubt about the reach of Nokia, the world's leading mobile handset maker, then check this: Nokia just announced the simultaneous June launch of its flagship N97 in more than 75 countries. We already had hints of this for the US and Western Europe but it's good to have it official. And with N97 chatter on the uptick recently, we're expecting to see this 3.5-inch QWERTY touchscreen slider running S60 5th sooner rather than later.Update: Available June 19th for £500 sim-free in the UK or June 26th if you want it bundled with a contract. Anyone else seeing local launch dates?
Dammit Why can't Palm do the same?
Nokia is the worlds leading handset maker, making $$$ ...........
Palm doesn't have that $$$ :P
and i don't think the phone is too expensive.
if you look at the pre and the overall quality + storage and so on, i think the N97 is clearly ahead of the pre. i think in germany prices of pre and n97 will be equal..
but i also don't like symbian and webOS looks soooo promising :-/
hard choice.
Is Canada in this?
I would imagine so. It would be silly not to include the country. I would assume the top 75 include most Western civilised countries, but you never know, there may be some surprises in the list.
I, on the other hand highly doubt that Canada in included. We always get raped by all the cellphone manufacturers and cellphone operators...
@holycow
Maybe once Telus and Bell make the switch over to GSM, the prices will become more competitive, who knows?
Canada is part of North America, which is according to its Nokia website, but anyway, i think Canada would be included
want to quote a source for this Thomas? Not that I doubt you .. but
http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1319081
Nokia Press Release
Thanks ..
ridiculous reach... how do they have that kind of manufacturing power and capital?...
There are already pre-order ahead of time to finance the supplies, if you're not in the tech trading field then you probably wouldn't know.
Nokia manufactures over 400 million phones per year. Thats 100 milion a quartet. If they release it with a 5 million unit stock its only 5% of one quartets capacity. Peanuts.
With 75 country release it shows they believe they have a hit in their hands
video from the production line - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdVwC9KYhdE&feature=player_embedded
First time I've seen a boxing video. There's always unboxing vids.
Boxing and umboxing. This phone has everything.
This phone is really gonna be something...
Typical, I splash out for a new phone because I'm sick of waiting and it'll probably come out next week here.
Ah well, it's too expensive for me now anyway.
"Ah well, it's too expensive for me now anyway."
Since you blew your budget on a different phone, you mean?
Yes - if I'd have waiteda little longer, it would have been doable. Now I'd have more to pay, what with the resale value of my new phone to consider. I doubt I'd get back what I spent on it.
I don't think Nokia thought this one through
they released the E75 a couple of months ago here in Saudi and most people who were thinking of switching phones got it for less than half the price of the N97, and now with this release, I don't think they will find a lot of buyers. also, its way too expensive.
N97 and E75 are relatively similar, but should appeal to different demographics based on personal preferences. Want touchscreen? N97. Don't care for touchscreen? E75.
Unfortunately, I think that the E75 will get overshadowed by the N97 just because of touch. Shame, seeing as how the E75 was touted by Nokia as being the successor to the Communicator series. The E75 is a great little slider phone.
I think the Symbian OS is becoming the achilles heel of Nokia. Some of the Hardware is really pretty (e71 comes to mind) however the User experience is just clunky in comparison to everyones favourite iphone
Hey look at me. I'm gonna make a comment and pimp out some lame website
http://gizmodo.com - "News"
Just hope the 5800 gets an upgraded widgety standby screen in a future firmware update. Quick question: can they be like turned off or hidden cos' i wouldn't always want it as my standby screen.
Yes, you can have a blank standby screen. I think you swipe to clear the widgets so you can have just wallpaper and basic clock/battery etc. The manual is online somewhere I thought?
Looking froward tot he release. I read this post on the Nokia Beta labs and conv. blog. along with the video. I think I was late in ordering mine, but oh well. I think I will prolly be the first one to have it in Ohio lol. Coz, in ohio cell phones are just flip phones from verizon/sprint and crap lot of others. This is a real phone whether you like it or not.
Y cant they give us the U.S. release date already :( Im getting frustrated already. i wanted to receive my phone by friday but that seems highly unlikely now :( hopefully the June 2nd rumors are true though :( which seem doubtful now :(
£500?!... I'll believe that when I see it. The stupid amount of money they charged for that naff N96 in my local Nokia store was an utter joke.
Shame my sim is locked to a BlackBerry contract. :(
That phone looks pretty sexy. Anything over £400 and i pass.
Your call nokia.
Yawn.
N97 Nordic Keyboard layout hitting Nordic countries 12. August I think.
Am I the only one that thinks the N97 is too little too late? If they'd have released this shortly after it was first announced (2nd Dec 2008?) then it would have been a winner. Now it's got too much competition in the form of the soon to be released phones (Samsung Omnia HD, new Sony Satio, etc)
yeah its been outdated for years
I don't think it's too late. It's all about preferences. Someone like me, who enjoys symbian, will go for this... iPhone fanboys will go for the new iPhone...etc. I personally think that with Nokia your spending more (usually) but you are getting a lot more for the money and your device is unlocked. You won't ever get that one from Apple.
Nice, hopefully will get a sim free one off play.com.
Thats after they update 'Due for release on 27/06/2009'
Nokia makes some good hardware, but the operating environment (not the low level S60, but the stuff you actually interact with) SUCKS. There's a complete lack of inconsistency and sense in many cases, and the after market apps suffer in the same way. The audio and GPS apps for example are really horrible to use (even if you can use GPS offline, which is great). It's clear each generation of UI is just a shallow face lift, but what their line needs is a deep redesign and enforcement of UI guidelines. Part of this is their cultural ambivalence to touch screens, part of it is their overly segregated marketing approach to phones, the rest is sheer lack of strong core UI designers. My n95 has 5 different ways to do the same thing, each conceptually different, and each runs into dead ends of usability quickly.
Any chance you could run Android on this device without too much pain?
I pre-ordered this phone over a month ago for $571 from NokiaUSA.com. Received a second Order Confirmation email last week. I wonder when they will start shipping out the pre-orders.
Yeah, I really hope they send out a date for us pre-order customers soon. They certainly should know by now when they are receiving their inventory. I'm worrying they're going to do their old bullshit and ship pre-orders well after retailers start selling them.
Did you also get a second Order Confirmation email last week?
Hey, I got a second order confirmation too! I was hoping that they would send me two, but it had the same confirmation number... lol
HEllo
As per Nokia Master Dealer in New York.. ( Parktel incorp ) ... Nokia N97 will be available for sale on June 22nd.
Thanks
Sayem
UAE june 15th
I wont be buying this. A) its too expensive in the first place (maybe after a few price drops though?) B) Resistive touch? Get with the times Nokia. Other than that this seems to be quite the solid, powerful device. No if only it ran Maemo OS5...
Seriously, unless the spec sheet i read was wrong the Samsung OmniaHD seems primed and ready to steal this things thunder.
Amazon site update: In stock on June 25, 2009.
Just got off the phone with Amazon - I think that's the "second batch/bigger batch" date possibly - they still are "planning for delivery between the 9th and 22nd" ... we shall see.
>>>@ Jason
When i called Amazon, they told me that they will ship mine on the 25TH and i told them why did they sent me an email stating that my order will ship between 11-24th. This is very frustrating.
Amazon just updated it again, Ship between 2 to 4 weeks.
just arrived in Saudi for SR 2500 .. about $ 667 no contract, want the black? pay $50 more ..