Nokia delays N900 launch date again

The stage remains set for a mighty smartphone showdown between the Nokia N900 and the iPhone 3GS

Nokia has delayed the launch of its much-hyped N900 smartphone flagship for the second time in three months

Nokia has postponed the launch of its eagerly-awaited Nokia N900 smartphone for the second time - pushing back its debut to an unspecified launch date in November.

This follows an earlier delay in August when the shipping date was pushed back to October.

Nokia's latest delay is bound to lead to lead to speculation that it is having problems ironing out issues with the Maemo operating software used by the N900. Maemo is based on the open-sourced Linux software and marks the first time Nokia has moved away from the Symbian OS in its smartphones.

Many pundits believe that the N900 is Nokia's best chance to snatch back ground lost to Apple's iPhone. The N900 certainly has the edge in it its tech specs, which include:

3.5-inch, 800x480 resolution touchscreen
5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash
A-GPS with geo-tagging support
WVGA video recording at 25 fps
Pull-out QWERTY keyboard

The delay could be seen as positive if it means that the N900 arrives in shops without all the software niggles that plagued the launch of the N95, Nokia's previous smartphone flagship.

And the stage remains set for a mighty smartphone showdown between the Nokia N900 and the iPhone 3GS. Bring it on...