Nokia’s N97 Launch All About The Ovi

I’m at the Official Nokia N97 launch in Sydney this morning. It’s the first phone to ship with Nokia’s Ovi store on the handset.

One of the big announcements around the Ovi store is that there are a heap of local content producers, including ABC, Austereo, News Digital Media and Lookoutmobile (for AFL and NRL updates).

If you’re hanging out for pricing and availability, here you go: the N97 will be available from Optus and Vodafone for an RRP of $1,129. The phone will be available on plans from both telcos, and those plans will include data apparently, but the specifics aren’t ready yet. The phone itself – which will be available in black and white – will be available from the middle of July

Of the interesting factoids mentioned this morning is the knowledge that there are over 20,000 apps on the Ovi store already with availability in over 170 countries. Also, apparently having done some research into one of their E-Series handsets, Nokia discovered that only 12% of mobile use was for making calls – the other 88% was doing things like listening to music, browsing the web or tweeting.