This past few weeks has been a whirlwind of wild speculation about Apple, its new version of OS X for the iPhone and of course the newest iPhone 3G S hardware.

In parallel with this has been some frenzied viral marketing of the Palm Pre, the latest supposed "iPhone killer". It must be delightful, within Apple corridors, to see so much effort being put into defining and building a "killer" for their one and only mobile smartphone product. They must be feeling quite smug.

So, now that the hiatus of the above has pretty much passed us by it seems a good time to turn our gaze to the globe's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones and smartphones. An enviable reputation to be sure.

Staggeringly improbable but true, Nokia have pretty much been last to the table with their own touchscreen smartphone. Even more surprising is that they have finally done so with what looks like a re-worked HTC Touch Pro 2 (see here, here and here for some comparison articles).

So will Nokia be able to do the "killer" deed with their N97 based on Symbian OS version 5? Do they even need to for that matter?

The reviews I dropped in this short article are entirely random and not selected on any criteria other than they are reasonably short and well written comparisons. They may be fair, they may not, I only offer them here as seen.

July is when we are supposed to see widespread availability of the N97 and there are Nokia die-hards who would not consider anything else, no matter how "good" the other device/s may be. So it is reasonable to make a presumption that the N97 will be a Nokia success. But what about a market segment success? Any chance of that happening against the Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android opposition?

And what about "the experience" that is the iPhone and Android supporting infrastructure? The very foundations upon which these two are based. Are Nokia up to the mustard to be able to deliver on time with their own Ovi and Ovi Store products? Certainly, there is a lot of disaffection with Ovi at the moment, with a catalogue of issues to be dealt with. Can Nokia be ready by July?

For as sure as eggs are eggs, the Nokia N97 will be held up to its competition by eager industry watchers and Nokia loyalists alike. And they'd better not be disappointed because Nokia have certainly had sufficient time upon which to build their own proposition.

I know of one of our Talk3G members who has [very] briefly had possession of an N97 and has got rid of it. Hopefully he will care to comment on the why's and wherefore's for himself.

The Nokia N97, are you waiting for its arrival? Are you buying into the proposition? What are your expectations and wants? How will you use your N97?