Nokia starts selling the N97 next month

. Finland’s Nokia Corp. expects its new flagship N97 phone to generate significant sales and strengthen its brand when it reaches consumers next month, the handset maker’s Swedish country manager Johan Eidhagen said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires Monday.


“It will be incredibly important both for marketing and for generating sales,” he said.

Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, announced the N97 in December 2008 and will start selling the device on a number of markets including the Nordic countries in June. Eidhagen said the phone, which will cost around EUR550 before taxes and subsidies, is aimed at a relatively wide target group but gave no sales targets.

Klas Ström, head of portfolio management at Nokia Scandinavia, said its key advantages are that users can personalize the start screen, and get more customized services through the use of applications. The combined touch screen and QWERTY keyboard should also appeal to many consumers, he told Dow Jones Newswires.

via Totaltele