Nokia has finally revealed the launch date for its high-end N96 phone, which is expected to give tough competition to the Apple iPhone in the Indian market. Nokia said that it will launch N96 on September 16 this year. The phone will be priced at Rs 34,999 and will come with a 16 GB memory, which will be expandable to 24 GB with an optional microSD card. The price tag for the latest phone in the N series is similar to the Apple iPhone 3G (16 GB).
Unlike the iPhone, which is only available with two service providers – Bharti Airtel and Vodafone – N96 will be available as an unlocked phone which the user will be able to use with any GSM mobile connection. Devinder Kishore, director marketing, Nokia India said, ?We will prefer to have open distribution, though we have strategic partnerships with each of the service providers.? He added that Nokia already has about 30 devices that are 3G enabled and N96 is another extension of the technology that will bring convergence of data from across communication devices. Nokia will provide preloaded country maps of India, Singapore and the UAE and a three month navigation license for eight cities across India with N96.
