Nokia said prepping touchscreen Nseries

Nokia already has a second touchscreen device in the works following the 5800 XpressMusic, the company's Indian marketing chief Devinder Kishore has reportedly told CellPassion at a New Delhi event. The phone would sit above the mid-range 5800 and instead join the Nseries, which so far has relied almost exclusively on traditional direction and number pads for controls but often has stronger cameras and other media features.

The handset isn't given any details or specific release information but would be announced in the remaining weeks of the year and ship sometime in early 2009. Nokia is also allegedly planning to extend touchscreens into the mainstream and should release devices significantly below the 5800 and its roughly $389 unsubsidized price.

If accurate, the release strategy would represent a major turnaround for Nokia, which will be one of the last major phone manufacturers to have a full touchscreen cellphone on the market when it ships the 5800. The company had to lower market share forecasts for the summer in part due to a delay in the 5800 and the impact of the iPhone 3G as well as other devices heavily subsidized to draw customers away from Nokia's devices.

Filed under: iPhone, industry, mobile phones
Other story tags: Nokia, XpressMusic