Nokia E7 starts shipping December 10th (update: December 2010)

We can imagine that the wait's been an excruciating one for wannabe E7 owners who've been restraining themselves from buying an N8 instead... but the good news is that the wait isn't that much longer. Nokia has announced on Twitter today that the 4-inch tilting QWERTY handset -- a phone Espoo has labeled the true successor to the storied Communicator series -- will start shipping out on the 10th of next month, though exact availability dates and times will undoubtedly vary a bit from market to market. The company has been quick to note that today's wild Symbian Foundation news has no effect on the existing range of Symbian^3 devices being launched as we close out the year, so the question is: who's buying?

Update: Nokia just clarified that it meant December 2010, not the 10th of December in its tweet.