Nokia N9 on sale "within a month"?

Nokia would only confirm that the new N9 was on its way sometime in 2011, but according to at least one report it could well be sooner rather than later. A Forbes source close to Nokia revealed that the MeeGo-based N9 would be on store shelves "within a month."

Meanwhile, "a developers' edition of the phone" – which sounds to us a lot like the Nokia N950 – is supposedly even closer to release, with Nokia tipped to be handing out handsets straight away. The N950 takes most of the N9's specs, pairs them with a slightly bigger 4-inch touchscreen and a physical QWERTY keyboard, and slots them inside an aluminum slide-and-tilt chassis rather than the consumer device's polycarbonate.

Still unclear is pricing for the N9, though Forbes warns that it's not likely to be cheap and the specs would certainly support that prediction. Select MeeGo developers will be in line for a free N950 courtesy of Nokia, though how exactly you get onto that coveted list remains to be seen.

Nokia N9 live demo: