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Timing is not Nokia's strong point at the moment. Just as it is garnering rave previews for the N900 'Rover', its most impactful device since the N95 redefined the high end phone, it has decided to delay shipment until November, several weeks later than expected and running into the eye of the holiday purchasing storm.

The Finnish giant says it wants to gather feedback from Maemo developers to perfect the software experience, since this is the most important product it has yet launched running its Linux-based OS, which will become a key part of the strategy from 2010, especially for the latest attempt to break into north America (so far Maemo has only run on the well regarded but niche Internet Tablet non-cellular range).

"We are working closely with open source developers and for example, at the Maemo Summit in October, we loaned 300 pre-production units to get more feedback from the community," said Peter Schneider, head of Maemo marketing, in a statement. "This feedback is extremely important to us and as such we also want to provide the best user experience with the Nokia N900. We expect it to start shipping during November 2009."

This will inevitably give rise to speculation about teething troubles with the latest iteration of Maemo, release 5, which was unveiled in the summer. It is critical that Nokia gets this right, in a market where two factors are essential, beyond hardware design - the user mobile web experience, and the appeal to developers. Nokia said the hardware is fully finalized and the delay is purely related to optimizing the software platform, to ensure it makes a splash against other Linux-based offerings, notably Android, but also Palm webOS and the Vodafone backed MiMo.

The device remains available for pre-order on Nokia's web site, though carrier deals have not been announced yet, (and there is unlikely to be on in the US any time soon, even though the product could run on the T-Mobile network). The N900 will have am HSPA connection at 900/1700/2100MHz), a WVGA touchscreen display and a Qwerty keyboard, with a fast ARM Cortex-A8 processor, up to 1Gb of memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration.

While the N900 claims to outdo the iPhone in key usability aspects like multitasking and multimedia clout, future upgrades may look to leapfrog Apple in one of its key areas of strength, multitouch. As Nokia attacks the iPhone maker in the law courts, it is also looking to assault its technical leads. The Finn has filed a patent for a new generation multitouch interface with 3D controls and says it is already testing the technology in prototypes.

This is likely to show up in Maemo 6 next year. According to Mobile Top Soft, the patent filing uses a 3D principle that enables the haptic touchscreen not only to react to finger movements in the usual way, but also to gauge the strength and direction of the pressure, and react accordingly. This combines capacitive technology with force sensors and could open the way to many new applications and usage patterns.

To date, 3D has made limited progress in smartphones, except in the area of software user interfaces like LG's S-Class. Another key area of development for the future will be 3G graphics and video. Qualcomm is working on technologies to map a video onto a 3D surface or render a plane of 2D graphics onto 3D graphics, working towards the elusive 'immersive environment'.

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