The MeeGo-based Nokia N9 has finally begun shipping to Nokia's customers and stores.

"Since we announced the Nokia N9 in June this year, the feedback that it has gotten from discerning and avid smartphone users across the world has been nothing short of fantastic," said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President of Marketing, Nokia. "With the innovations in industrial design, user interface, and the Qt developer experience, the Nokia N9 sets the bar for how natural technology can feel, and represents the first in a number of products from Nokia that will be brought to life in similar fashion."

The Nokia N9 features a new user interface that's controlled with a simple swipe. With no home key, there's more room for apps to shine. Three home views - Applications, Events and Live Applications - enable people to navigate through the smartphone easily. Other features include:

- 3.9-inch AMOLED screenmade from scratch-resistant curved glass
- Easy single-tap pairing with NFC-enabled accessories such as the Nokia Play 360 wireless speaker and sharing of content through NFC technology
- An 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor and wide-angle lens for HD-quality video and photo capture, and large lens aperture for great camera performance even in low-lighting conditions; easy capture and share of images and videos with social networks
- Mobile Internet radio, with a range of music out-of-the-box and no fees or account creation necessary, available for the first time as part of the Nokia Music offering; just press play. And the music sounds even better on the first smartphone to come with Dolby Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology.
- Free turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice-guided maps for more than 100 countries and in more than 50 languages
- Top social networking, communication, entertainment and gaming apps preloaded
- Global and local apps available through Nokia store

The Nokia N9 is available in three colours - black, cyan and magenta with 16GB and 64GB storage options to accommodate plenty of content and will be on sale in countries around the world.

The estimated retail price of the Nokia N9 16GB and 64GB is approximately EUR 480 and EUR 560 before applicable taxes or subsidies, with pricing and availability varying from region to region and operator to operator.