Nokia today announced a brand new touch screen phone, Nokia N900 that is powered by Maemo software, an open-source Linux-based software that delivers PC-like experience on a handset-sized device. The release of Nokia N900 instantly crowns the new king of mobile phone of the year. The N900 is powered by an ARM Cortex-A8 process with up to 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration, enough to support PC-like multitasking experience. Storage and memory wise, it has 32GB internal memory, and is upgradeable to 48GB via a microSD card. Besides that, it has a big high-resolution WVGA touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, 5-megapixel digital camera with Carl Zeiss optics, fast HSPA and WLAN connectivity, and full Adobe Flash(TM) 9.4 support.

Running on the new Maemo 5 software, the Nokia N900 empowers users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously while taking full advantage of the cellular features, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard.

“With Linux software, Mozilla-based browser technology and now also with cellular connectivity, the Nokia N900 delivers a powerful mobile experience,” says Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia. “The Nokia N900 shows where we are going with Maemo and we’ll continue to work with the community to push the software forward. What we have with Maemo is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways.”

The Nokia N900 will be available in select markets from October 2009 with an estimated retail price of EUR 500 excluding sales taxes and subsidies.