Nokia Announces New N900 Linux Tablet

Hot on the heels of its Windows netbook, Nokia has announced a new version of its Linux tablet line, the N900.

A new version of the Linux tablet series which has included the N800 and N810, will “deliver a PC-like experience on a handset-sized device,” according to the company’s announcement. It runs the company’s Maemo 5 Linux OS on an ARM processor with up to 1G of application memory and 48G of storage. It has built in HSPA and Wi-Fi, and allows multi-tasking, with a touchscreen and qwerty keyboard.

There had been fears that the company’s Maemo Linux version would be sidelined once the company plumped for Windows instead on the Booklet 3G netbook announced this week.

“The Nokia N900 shows where we are going with Maemo and we’ll continue to work with the community to push the software forward,” said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president of markets at Nokia. “What we have with Maemo is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways.”

Nokia wheeled on an IDC analyst to praise the device and the OS: “While we have seen continued growth in Symbian as a smartphone platform, Maemo enables Nokia to deliver new mobile computing experiences based on open-source technology that has strong ties with desktop platforms,” said Jonathan Arber, senior research analyst in consumer mobile at IDC.

The device also has a camera and will be on sale from October 2009, from around €500. It will also be on show next week at Nokia World.