Nokia's N9 - a phone already lost to history - hits NZ

UPDATE OCT 14: The Nokia N9 was officially in New Zealand launched today (which puts us one up on the US, where the handset hasn't been released). The handset costs $999 off contract and is exclusive to Vodafone. 

--

UPDATE SEPT 19: The N9 will go onsale in New Zealand in October, Nokia said today. The handset will be exclusive to Vodafone, black only, and priced at $999 off-contract.

My preview, below, emphasises that the N9's Meego software (the product of an earlier partnership with Intel), will shortly be swept aside by Nokia's new, multi-billion dollar hookup with Microsoft.

On that note, check out this first-look at Windows 8, which incorporates many features from Microsoft's Windows Phone push.

For the sake of competition and innovation, I wish Nokia and Microsoft well as they prepare to launch the first handsets based on their new alliance.

Meanwhile, we have the N9, a phone out of time.

Lastly, in answer to the question below, Nokia has never maintained that the N9 would be firmware upgradeable to Mango (the next version of Microsoft's Windows Phone OS). Solutions architect Ben Gracewood notes it would be physically impossible anyway since Mango requires buttons, and the all-screen N9 has none.

JUNE 21: You'll have seen a bunch of stories on NBR, and elsewhere, tracking the players in the smartphone sales war.

Most market survey firms have tracked a huge surge in Google Android handset sales; Apple holding its own, BlackBerry falling ... and, well, a lot of the time they don't even mention Nokia.

Realising it was being marginalised, Nokia made a serious of seismic changes, ditching its CEO for a Microsoft import, and committing to move its high-end handsets to Microsoft's Windows Phone software under a multi-billion dollar partnership.

There's a bit of risk there. Some wonder why Nokia didn't move to Android, like HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and other key competitors. But it's still a solid punt. Windows Phone is much niftier than its Windows Mobile predecessors, and has some nicely executed personal cloud features.Nokia's in with a chance when it releases its first Windows Phone models before the end of this year.

Meantime, we get the Nokia N9, previewed today in Singapore amid much hoopla.

The N9 runs on Meego software co-developed with Intel and once - before the Microsoft partnership was cooked up - the next big thing for Nokia. Now, it's a dead end.

Journalists who covered the event say the N9, with its unibody design, 8 megapixel camera, turn-by-turn GPS mapping, 3.9-inch AMOLED display, no buttons and other innovations, is a smartly engineered phone.

No doubt it is.

But the world, and Nokia, have already passed it by.

It's just months before Nokia moves most of its high-end models to Windows Phone software.

And believe me, once that happens, you'll see Meego, as the Screaming Meemees would have put it.

Nokia's smartphone message will become all Windows Phone all of the time.