Nokia has announced a new flagship smart phone, the N97, in Barcelona on Tuesday.

The N97 combines a touch screen, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, Web-based widgets, GPS, high-speed Internet and even Flash video. The bulky phone houses a powerful ARM11 processor, a 5-megapixel camera with 640 x 480 video recording, 32 Gbytes of on-board memory and a big, 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 touch screen.

The N97 runs a new version of Nokia’s Symbian Series 60 operating system, with a new home screen that incorporates Internet-based widgets. Nokia said it would cost around 550 euros, or about $700, before taxes or carrier subsidies when it launches next year. It will probably be compatible with AT&T Inc.’s high-speed data network in the U.S.

The company also announced a new version of their GPS mapping software that includes 3D landmarks. The new Nokia Maps allows users to plan their journey ahead of time on their PCs and sync the information with their mobile phones.

Nokia hopes to use the N97′s GPS to enhance social networking with what the company calls “social location.” Using the N97′s GPS sensors and compass, the phone will come with software to automatically update a user’s physical location on social-networking sites, the company said in a press release.

The N97 will appear in Europe during the first half of 2009, and it will sell in the U.S. shortly afterwards. But Nokia’s high-end phones have been largely irrelevant in the North American market, observes PC World. Apple, Microsoft, RIM’s Blackberry and now the Android handset by T-Mobile dominate the U.S. smartphone market and can cost only one third as much. Nokia’s most recent offerings, the N85, N96, and E71, were not picked up by any U.S. carriers.

Still, Nokia dominates the world’s mobile phone market. Nokia expects the industry to sell 1.24 billion cell phones this year, down slightly from a previous estimate of 1.26 billion.

Worldwide smartphone sales totaled 32.2 million units in the second quarter of 2008, a 15.7 per cent increase from the second quarter of 2007, according to market researcher Gartner. Smartphones’ share remained stable at 11 per cent. Nokia held the No. 1 position with a 47.5 per cent market share in the second quarter of 2008, a year-over-year growth about half of the market average. Nokia faced increased competition from Apple, HTC and others.

Informa forecasts subscriptions to UMTS/HSPA will number nearly half a billion worldwide by the end of 2009, and will pass the one billion mark in 2012. Currently some 88% use GSM standards while 11% use CDMA. Global mobile penetration will increase to 95 percent by 2013 from 46 percent in 2008, according to a new survey of 34 emerging markets by Tariff Consultancy.

There are 1.5 billion TV sets in the world. 900 million personal computers, desktops and laptops. The internet had 1.3 billion users at the end of 2007. But mobile subscribers have topped 3.5 billion.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 10:16 am .